


So, there’s this guy...

by Srcbabies



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Age Difference, Brat Eddie Kaspbrak, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Enjoy!, Law Student Eddie Kaspbrak, M/M, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Slow-ish burn, Sweet Eddie Kaspbrak, author borrowed two (2) things from btvs but since they aren’t using it anymore then why not, lawyer richie tozier, legally blonde au!, surprise! Frank Kaspbrak is alive!, that means Sonia is tame but still overbearing, the whole gang is here honestly, this is gonna be a ride, uhh dont pay too close attention to the timeline bc idk either
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27540202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Srcbabies/pseuds/Srcbabies
Summary: Heartbroken and newly single, Eddie devises up a plan to win back his ex boyfriend.It’s not like it’s hard getting into Harvard Law School, right?—A Legally Blonde reddie au that no one asked for.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Original Male Character(s), Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 59
Kudos: 97





	1. Huh, I didnt see that coming

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has plagued my mind for months and I just had to finally write something or else I would’ve officially gone crazy. (I already love this bc I love writing for Eddie) 💕
> 
> For my fellow readers who also love/watched btvs...Yeah, I totally borrowed Faith and made her a lesbian. And I also borrowed another small element from the show 👀👀 Faith refers to Eddie as ‘B’ in this and its not a typo! B=Bambi of course.
> 
> Like the movie, Eddie is 21 and Richie is 28.
> 
> (Expect the next chapter of meant to be sometime this month 😳😳)  
> Happy reading!

“That’s so perfect. I love that place!” Eddie said giddily into his phone. A few muffled laughs came from his bed and he glared over his shoulder at his friends. He threw the nearest thing he could grab from his place on the floor, which happened to be a small blue teddy bear that sat on his shelf, at them. Adrian easily caught it with a smirk. 

“Is that really the best you can do, Kaspbrak?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. 

_ “I’m on the phone!”  _ Eddie mouthed back with a desperate wave of his hand. Adrian had a retort ready on his lips but Faith swooped in at the last second and covered his mouth with her hand, shooting him a thumbs up. God, he really loved her. 

Eddie turned his attention back to his boyfriend, listening with a small smile on his face as Parker told him their dinner plans for tonight. He’d woken up this morning in the brightest mood because of this. Because of  _ him.  _ It had only been a couple of weeks since his boyfriend had traveled back home for a visit to his hometown but Eddie had desperately missed him and he couldn’t wait to see him again tonight.

“Okay, I love you. See you tonight.” Eddie hung up with a contented sigh. Then he turned his sights on his giggling friends. “Okay, I hate the both of you.” He pointed an accusing finger at them both. “Not so much you, Faith because you know I have a soft spot for you, but still! You both know how pathetic I get when I’m on the phone with Parker, so stop it with the little snickers behind my back!” 

“You should have heard yourself this time though,” Faith said. She and Adrian were both spread out on his bed, something they did more often than not when stopping by his dorm to hang out. Eddie was just grateful that they both took off their shoes this time. 

“He was gone for two weeks! Am I not allowed to be ridiculously happy that he’s back?” Eddie asked.

“That’s beside the point,” Adrian dismissed as he sat up, still holding the bear in his hand. “So?” He leveled him with a look.

“So…?” Eddie prompted him. 

“Don’t be so dense all of a sudden. Is tonight  _ the _ night?” Adrian wiggled his eyebrows. 

Eddie let out a weak groan in response. “I don’t know. I’m not even positive it’s gonna happen this  _ month,  _ let alone—“

“He just went home to see his fucking family, and to see his grandmother who also happened to be visiting!” Faith stressed. “For a whole two weeks too, so there were plenty of opportunities to get the family ring. It’s happening, B.” 

Eddie’s mouth stretched into an excited smile as he felt hope flooding his system. “You think?” 

“Duh!” Adrian screamed. “You’re gonna get engaged!” Both he and Faith squealed, holding their arms out for a hug. Eddie jumped up instantly, a giggle falling from his lips as he fell into their arms. His heart swelled in his chest, feeling the love radiating from both of his best friends.

He met them by chance when he was barely a freshman at USC. One day he was browsing one of the many cork boards that took up a section of his college dorm’s common room, looking for any clubs or organizations he was interested in joining, when someone came up next to him and put up a new flyer. They walked away before Eddie could so much as get a glance at them, but the flyer caught his attention. It was for the Queer and Ally Student Assembly. 

Now one would think he met them at the organization’s first meeting of the semester, considering both Adrian and Faith were  _ proud gays _ as they’d like to say, but funnily enough, he bumped into Adrian at the university’s bookstore his first week there. Both of them fell into a conversation that ended with an exchange of emails, and he met Faith in his Intro to Fashion Merchandising class. She came in late (something that Eddie came to learn was going to be a very common thing) and there was only one empty seat left, the chair to his left. 

He roped Faith into coming to a meeting with him one night, knowing Adrian would be there, and he made introductions between the pair, sighing in relief when his only two friends on campus got along so well. The rest was history for their little trio.

Though, their trio had gotten slightly bigger with the inclusion of Don, Adrian’s all-american (in a good way) boyfriend that he started dating halfway through freshman year. He could just hear the wedding bells for them too...

And as for Parker, it was a miracle that they ever met. They didn’t run in the same social circles at all. Parker was studying law and his classes never overlapped with Eddie’s more creative, fashion courses. But they had met by chance last year when bumping into each other at a frat party his friends had dragged him to. Parker fit his type to a tee: tall, dark, and handsome—a fact he later gushed about to his friends the next day. They spent the whole night flirting before taking things upstairs to a spare bedroom. 

Thank god for frat parties, really. 

Eddie untangled himself from their embrace with a wistful sigh and sat back on his knees. “So what should I wear tonight?” He asked them.

———

“Eddie, he’s here! I just saw him walk up the steps.” Adrian said from his spot by the window where his eyes had been glued to for the past fifteen minutes. 

“Really?” Eddie glanced at the clock on his nightstand, reading the time. “He’s five minutes early. That’s new.” 

“Maybe he’s just as anxious to see you as you are to see him.” Faith piped up from her spot on the floor. She was playing around with Mr. Gordo, his beloved black cat, teasing her by whipping around a string of yarn. 

Eddie stood in front of his full length mirror, looking over his outfit once more. It wasn’t his best, certainly not for a night like tonight, but he was going for sentimental. He picked out the exact outfit he’d worn on his and Parker’s first date. A baby blue button down shirt paired with black slacks. Eddie cursed his past self for going with something so plain and simple back then, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. 

He hoped Parker would appreciate the little detail, nonetheless. 

Just then, three knocks sounded on his door. Both Faith and Adrian squealed at a lower volume, making Eddie laugh as he went to answer the door. He shushed them before opening it and was met with the gorgeous sight of Parker’s smiling face. 

“Hey!” Eddie immediately jumped into his arms. He pressed his face into his neck and hugged him tight, feeling whole again as he felt familiar arms wrapping around his waist.

“Hey baby, I missed you so much.” Parker murmured and Eddie’s heart warmed at hearing the term of endearment. It was by far, his favorite. 

Eddie pulled away, beaming. “I missed you too.” Parker trailed his hands from his waist and brought them down his arms and to his hands, holding them. Eddie’s breath hitched as his thumb seemed to linger over his ring finger.  _ Holy shit,  _ could this really be the night?

Adrian cleared his throat from behind him, prematurely ending Eddie’s silent freak out. 

Parker let go of his hands. “Oh, hey Adrian. I didn’t see you there.”

“I’m here too!” Faith said, her attention still solely focused on Mr. Gordo. Eddie lovingly rolled his eyes at the sight. 

Parker chuckled. “Yes, I see you too, Faith.” His boyfriend tried to wave, but it was fruitless, Faith wasn’t looking. He then turned his gaze on Eddie again. “So, shall we?” 

Eddie nodded and said his goodbyes to his friends. When he started to see Adrian’s mouth move, he quickly pushed Parker out the door and closed it. “Let’s go.” He flashed him a smile.

———

It was the most perfect night. A perfect lead up to their engagement so far. They’ve been driving for a few minutes now with the radio turned on low and Eddie’s never felt more content. 

Here he was at twenty-one, about to be engaged to the love of his life. Eddie turned his head towards the window to hide his almost giddy grin.

Mr. Edward Cunningham.  _ Eddie Cunningham. _ He had to admit it sounded a little too stuffy, but Eddie knew it would grow on him with time. 

“You look beautiful, by the way,” Parker commented. Eddie looked in his direction with a delighted smile, feeling a flush settling on his cheeks. 

“Thank you, and you too.” They drove on for a few minutes more. Eddie wasn’t clocking their surroundings until he saw a nearby park. EF Hutton Park.

“I thought we were going to The Ivy?” Eddie asked. He glanced at his watch on his wrist, it was a quarter till eight. Eddie frowned when he realized they were going to miss their reservation by five minutes. What were they doing hovering around this area? He looked to Parker again, seeing his hands fidget on the wheel. 

“Uh, just a last minute change of plans. Nothing to worry about,” Parker said as he pulled into a parking spot. Eddie sighed as he took in his surroundings. It was just a normal park, nothing overly special about it, but he couldn’t deny that it was absolutely serene at night. He smiled softly at the idea of a private proposal. Sure, The Ivy would’ve been nice, but the thought of getting emotional in front of a bunch of strangers during an intimate moment between them made Eddie feel queasy. 

This was better, he decided.

Parker reached across the center console and grabbed his hand. His  _ left _ hand, Eddie noted with a soft gasp, and well, his left hand happened to be the one closest to him, but still! “I think we should talk about our future.” 

The giddy feeling returned in a rush.

“Yes, let’s.” Eddie fumbled to swiftly remove his seatbelt and return his hand in Parker’s grasp.

“I mean, we’re having a lot of fun now, but things are going to be different when I’m at Harvard. Law School is a different world and I need to be serious about it. You understand that right?” 

“Of course,” Eddie eagerly nodded, waiting for him to go on.

“My family, they um, expect a lot from me. And I do too. I plan on running for office someday.” Parker said slowly.

“And I fully support that, you know I do.” Eddie said, interlocking their fingers. Parker brought his gaze down to their hands and sighed.

“The thing is—if I’m going to be a senator by the time I’m thirty, I can’t keep screwing around, Eddie Bear.” Eddie’s eye twitched at hearing the pet name. 

He hated it. Eddie absolutely hated it and Parker knew that. The name had always rubbed him the wrong way and that was all thanks to his overbearing mother and her tendency to say it in a high pitched tone. 

He made the mistake of bringing his boyfriend home to meet his parents last Spring. All he wanted was a nice, normal weekend with both Parker and his family, to see how well he would get along with his parents, but it all quickly turned into hell that same night they arrived. He was helping his mother clean up their dining room table, when she used the stupid nickname to ask him to help her with the mess in the kitchen next. Parker had overheard her and laughed, and much to Eddie’s continued annoyance, teasingly referred to him as  _ Eddie Bear _ the entire weekend they stayed there. 

He still said it from time to time, and Eddie always made it a point to correct him. 

But Eddie took in a deep, calming breath. He can let it go this one time, considering the occasion. 

“I totally get that, Parker.” He nodded.

Parker moved his head closer and met his eyes. “That’s why I think it’s time we—“ Eddie’s heart was hammering under his chest.

This was it. He was finally going to ask him.

In all his excitement, he blurted out a passionate  _ “yes!”  _ at the same time Parker said, “—should break up.”

Seeing his boyfriend look baffled, Eddie’s mind went over the last ten seconds again, trying to find where he went wrong.

And then his brain finally registered what Parker had said.  _ What?  _

“Wait what?” Eddie asked in a soft voice. He pulled his hand away, feeling numb when Parker made no move grasp it again. 

“I’m sorry Eddie Bear, I just—”

Eddie huffed, feeling his face growing hot. “Stop, just- don’t call me that. How many times have I told you not to call me that?” When Parker just made a face and moved back to his side of the car, the situation finally sunk into Eddie. 

Parker had brought him to a random park to break up with him. This wasn’t a special date. This wasn’t a special night for them. He lied about making reservations at The Ivy and instead brought him here to  _ end their relationship. _

Tears sprung to his eyes. “I thought you were proposing,” Eddie whispered. 

“Proposing? Where did you get that idea?” He stared at him incredulously. “Eddie, if I’m going to be a politician by the time I’m thirty, I need to marry within my—”

“Within your what?” Eddie almost screamed out. He felt the first of his tears start to escape, but he didn’t bother wiping them away. 

“You and I are just from different worlds. I’m sorry.”

“So when you said you loved me and that I was your precious angel, you were just ‘screwing around’?” Eddie threw up his hands. “You’re such a fucking liar, I mean, you lied to me about tonight!”

“I do love you,” Parker said in a low voice. “I just can’t marry you. You have no idea the pressure I’m under from my family,” Eddie scoffed and rolled his eyes, but Parker ignored him and went on. “There’s five generations of lawyers in my family. My brother is in the top three at Yale Law and he just got engaged to a Vanderbilt, Eddie.”

“What does that have to do with us?” Eddie asked.

“I didn’t have a choice, baby.” His chest felt hollowed out.

“Let me take you home, yeah?” Without waiting for his reply, Parker started the car again. They drove back to campus with Eddie letting out pathetic little sniffles every once in a while. He couldn’t even blow his nose out properly because Parker never listened to him when Eddie suggested he keep tissues in the glove compartment of the car, just in case. 

They arrived in front of the university’s art building in record time. The building had the closest parking lot to his dorm. 

Letting the engine idle, Parker sighed. “I need to be with someone serious, Eddie.” 

“But I’m seriously in love with you, isn’t that enough?” Eddie looked at him with pleading eyes. Parker averted his gaze.

“Goodnight Eddie.” 

Eddie exited the car in a daze and before he could turn back to say something else, Parker backed out of his parking spot and drove off. 


	2. Now hear me out...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie gets an idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I did not expect to update this one so fast. We’re moving along now...just the tiniest bit closer to Richie...
> 
> I hope y’all enjoy this one 🤩💕

Eddie woke up the next morning with an unbearable headache, his eyes feeling sore from the sobbing fest he partook in last night and immediately thought that hiding out in his bed, cuddled up next to Mr. Gordo, was the best course of action for his mental health.

So he did exactly that for an entire week. Only venturing out of his room to get food from the cafeteria while dressed in his pajamas—something he’s  _ never _ done.

His mother would truly be horrified if she saw him.

Hugging his pillow to his chest, Eddie watched his tv screen with wet eyes as Tom Hanks finally came into view. He met Meg Ryan in the middle and wiped away her tears, pulling her in for a gentle kiss after. 

While standing in the middle of a goddamn park. 

“Jerks!” He wailed as he threw his pillow at the tv, angry at the director for picking such a place for the ending scene. Faith and Adrian entered his room then, witnessing his outburst.

Taking in the pathetic scene, Adrian sighed. “Okay, this has gone on long enough. It’s been a week, Eddie. You seriously have to leave this room and socialize with  _ someone.” _

Eddie opened his mouth to reply, but Adrian didn’t let him. “And I don’t mean us, babe.” He walked further into his room and picked up his pillow. He brushed the dust off with his hand and once he deemed it was clean again, he moved to place it back on his bed. Eddie was quick to sweep the used tissues that occupied the space next to him, under his blanket. He did not need to hear the lecture.  _ Again. _

“Meg Ryan? Really?” Adrian said and Eddie rolled his eyes. 

“I appreciate the visit guys, but what did you want?” He slumped back against his headboard and crossed his arms. 

“What say we all go out and have a bit of a spa day, yeah?” Faith said in a gentle tone. She sat on the edge of the bed and Eddie scooted closer to the middle to make room for her. “Let’s get you out of this room and have some fun!”

“Ugh, I don’t know...I don’t think I'm in the mood for that right now.” Eddie’s eyes widened then and he covered his mouth with his hands. “Oh god! He really ruined me forever!” His voice came out, muffled. “I-I just turned down a spa day, for god’s sake!” 

“Okay that’s it. We’re dragging you out of here.” Faith declared as she got up. Eddie yelped when his ass met the floor after she grabbed his legs and pulled hard. 

“Get up and get dressed, Kaspbrak.” Eddie made it a point to pout as clean clothes were thrown in his direction. He really was too tired to deal with this today. He thought about throwing his clothes back and putting up a fight, protesting this clear invasion of his privacy, but a gasp from Adrian made him freeze.

“What are you doing with all these tissues under your blanket?!” 

Eddie scrambled to stand up and book it out of his room to change in one of the perfectly fine restroom stalls down the hall. Germs be damned. 

———

They couldn’t have picked a worse day for some pampering. 

Eddie sat quietly in his chair, a little ways from both Faith and Adrian, and he was bored out of his mind. One of his favorite places in the world and he was  _ bored, _ Eddie almost let out a whimper.

His chair was directly facing the front windows of the beauty salon and he could see everyone that walked by within the vicinity of the street. He always enjoyed the act of people watching. On campus, he liked to choose a spot near a window to do his homework, just so he could have the added distraction of watching strangers walk by. He’d take sporadic breaks and amuse himself by thinking up random stories about some of them. Sometimes assessing what they’re wearing with a critical eye.

_ Pay attention to the current trends. The public will always be there to tell you,  _ his professors would say. 

Eddie didn’t enjoy it now though. He couldn’t help but frown every time he saw a happy couple pass by while holding hands. 

Eddie blew out a frustrated breath and turned his gaze to the stack of magazines laid out on the table in front of him. He might as well flip through one while waiting for both of his friends to be done with their manicures. Eddie picked up the closest one to him and froze when reading the title.

Fox & Hound. 

Of course, he’d pick up the one magazine that Parker had a subscription to. It was too snooty for his tastes, he much preferred reading Seventeen or one of the other _silly_ ones Parker always turned his nose up at.

_ Serious? Oh, I can so do serious, babe.  _ Eddie scoffed as he started to angrily flip through the magazine. The printed articles and pictures were all a blur, but he didn’t care. Holding it in his hands was enough to make a statement. 

He got to the engagement section pretty quickly and Eddie did a double take when he recognized one of the men pictured on the two-page spread. 

It was Layne, Parker’s older brother.

Eddie's eyes focused on the small paragraph next to his picture.  _ Third year Yale Law student Layne Cunningham and his fiancée Catherine Vanderbilt, first year Yale Law (above). _

“Vanderbilt...first year Yale Law,” Eddie whispered to himself and then it hit him. He gasped, hugging the magazine to his chest. 

_ Oh my god, this was it. _

“Guys!” Eddie screamed across the salon, causing both Faith and Adrian to look up in surprise. He got up and practically sprinted towards them. 

“Look!” Eddie shoved the magazine in their faces.

“Uh—what are we looking at?” Adrian asked. 

Eddie huffed impatiently. “The engagement section of this magazine, but look who’s pictured at the bottom!” He didn’t wait for them to figure it out. “It’s Parker’s brother! The older one at Yale!”

“Why are you showing this to us, B?” 

“He just got engaged to this first year law student.” Eddie related to them.

They both stared at him with their mouths slightly open, not connecting the dots like he so smartly did a minute ago.

Eddie could scream. He really could. 

“Guys—on my level,  _ please.”  _

“Yay for him?” Adrian said hesitantly.

“She’s a law student! The other night Parker brought up his brother getting engaged to a Vanderbilt, and that confused me so much because why was that so important? Why did he feel the need to say that? But it’s because of her major! This is the type of guy Parker wants to marry!”

Adrian squinted thoughtfully. “I think Vanderbilt is also a university.” Faith nodded, pointing at him.

“Okay, so not the point I’m trying to make.”

“Can you get there faster then?” Faith said.

“Parker said he needed serious. This is what I need to become serious.” Eddie smiled brightly as he pointed at Catherine’s face. 

Their faces fell in unison as it dawned on them. 

“You can’t be serious…” Adrian said. 

Faith pulled her hands away from the nail technician’s hold. “Okay, um- both of us are done. Thank you,” She said, indicating both her and Adrian, to the woman. She then grabbed his arm, pulling him with her to the front counter to pay. “B, this is crazy.”

“So fucking crazy,” Adrian chimed in from his left. Eddie looked between the two of them. 

“You really want to become a law student? All just to be the ‘type of guy Parker wants to marry’?” Faith never took her eyes off of him as she shoved a wad of cash in the cashier’s hand. 

“Of course.” Eddie nodded. Faith ushered them out the door. Once they were outside, they moved a few paces from the door to stand in front of the window instead. 

“You love fashion merchandising though.” Adrian said. 

“But I love him more.” Eddie said with conviction. 

Faith held up a hand. “Not to put a damper on things, but didn’t he say some pretty harsh things to you when breaking it off?”

“He did but looking back on it now, it was like he was forced to, you know?” Eddie nodded. Faith’s face looked pensive and Adrian was slightly frowning at him. Eddie continued, desperately trying to explain to them. “I mean, when I accused him of never loving me he said that he did! And he kept on saying he was sorry—he said it like three times! Now, does that sound like a man who  _ wants  _ to break up with his boyfriend?” 

“I...” Adrian shook his head in confusion.

“I don’t know, I like women,” Faith said blankly.

Eddie let out a snort. “Guys, I know what I’m doing here. I  _ know  _ Parker.”

Faith sighed and then nodded, accepting this turn of events. “I’ll always support you, no matter what. I hope you know that, B.” She reached out to grab his hand, squeezing it. 

Adrian smiled. “Yeah, we were just being cautious, but only because we love you.” He took a hold of his other hand and Eddie’s heart felt warm. 

“I love you two so much.” He said, pulling them into a brief hug. 

“Eddie Kaspbrak, first year Harvard Law,” Faith said with a smirk after they separated. “I like the sound of that.” Eddie laughed.

“Get that family ring, babe.” Adrian winked.

———

He made an appointment with his advisor the following Monday. 

Mrs. Barlow, the very picture of prim and proper, sat behind her desk. Her face was a mixture of shock and awe. She shook her head to clear it. “Harvard Law School? You want to go to Harvard Law School?”

Eddie smiled from his seat in front of her desk. “That’s right.”

She blinked. “Eddie, this is a top three school—”

“I’m way ahead of you there.” Eddie giggled. “I have a 4.0.” He nodded and pointed to his open student file that sat on top of her desk. 

“Yes, a 4.0 in fashion merchandising. It’s vastly different—Harvard won’t be impressed that you aced the ‘History of Polka Dots’.”

Eddie wrinkled his nose. “That’s not a real course.” 

“But you get my point,” Mrs. Barlow said slowly. When Eddie didn’t budge, she frowned. “What are your backups?” She inquired.

“I don’t need any backups. Harvard is the school I’m going to.” Eddie said confidently, making sure to dazzle her with a polite smile again. 

“Well, I admire your tenacity.” She nodded, visibly impressed. She grabbed a notepad and a pen. “Okay then, you’ll need excellent recommendations from your professors—which shouldn’t be hard for you, a heck of an admissions essay and at least a 175 on your LSATs.” She tore off the small piece of paper and handed him his list of the things he needed, with a polite grin. 

Eddie took all the new information in with stride.  _ Child’s play, really. _

“I had to learn how to bake an entire pie from scratch for last year’s holiday palooza. Trust me, I can handle anything.” 

Mrs. Barlow looked stunned for a second. Maybe hearing his awesome baking skills got to her, who knows. “Err- okay…” She blew out a breath. “Have you talked with your parents about your change of major?”

Eddie froze in his seat. 

_ No, he had not.  _

———

“Eddie Bear, am I hearing this right? You want to switch majors and go all the way across the country to live in Cambridge?!” His mother screeched into the receiver and Eddie winced from holding the handset too close to his ear. He really should’ve known not to do that anymore. 

“Ma, yes, I—” He tried to say.

“Did we do something wrong, Eddie? Is there a reason why you want to be so far away from us? Eddie please, just come over for a visit and we can—”

He could already feel the migraine coming. 

“Can you put dad on the phone? Please?” Eddie begged, crossing his fingers and hoping she would listen. His body slumped in relief when he heard the phone being passed to his father. 

“So, I hear you want to go to Harvard?” His dad’s calming voice came through.

“Yes, and before you ask! I have the grades to get in and I’ve already got the info of the other requirements I need to apply.” Eddie said in a rush.

“What’s with the sudden change of heart?”

Eddie debated for a second on whether or not to tell him the truth. His dad knew Parker of course, and as far as he knew, approved of him too. But would he be so easily accepting of the news if he learned of the catalyst event that pushed Eddie into pursuing law? 

Eddie decided that half of the truth would be enough. The truth being that his decision was mostly because of Parker.

“These past few months, Parker’s just been really passionate about showing me his side of the world and how great majoring in law could be. I kind of just fell in love with it, dad, and I really get the stuff too.” A big fat lie if he ever heard one. 

Though, he desperately prayed that the last one would really turn out true...

His father hummed in response. “Does this mean I can freely brag to the boys at the shop about my son being a future Harvard grad?” 

Eddie barked out a laugh. “So, you weren’t already bragging to them about me going to USC?” 

“Nah, it just doesn’t have that fancy ring to it.” His father teased.

Eddie smiled into the phone. “Thank you for supporting me.” He said.

“Always, and your mother will come around. She just needs time to process it.” 

“I know,” Eddie said softly. He and his dad chatted for ten more minutes about his work and his mother’s riveting soaps on tv, before they mutually decided to end the call.

And Eddie felt like a weight had been lifted off of his chest. The anxiety at the thought of telling his parents was gone and now all he had left to do was prepare for the LSATs, which shouldn’t be too difficult, he was a whizz at studying for tests; and write a damn good admissions essay. 

_... _

He wondered if there was a way around that essay. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bless Eddie Kaspbrak. Just,, bless him. 
> 
> I’m so excited to get to Harvard already. Anybody have any early guesses as to who will fill Vivian’s shoes in this au? Or even Professor Callahan? 👀👀
> 
> Have a wonderful day/night everyone 💗💗


	3. One book, two book, red book, blue book

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Gordo finds a new napping spot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again all! I hope y’all enjoy this chapter 🤩🤩

Eddie may have gone a little overboard with ordering official LSAT test prep books, but at least he was being thorough. 

Seven different books sat in front of him in three neat stacks. They were all up to date and came from different publishers too because Eddie would be damned if he missed one important detail on the test only because he hadn’t seen it mentioned in his one measly book. 

He was giving himself two months to study and he planned to use that time wisely. Eddie had even talked with his advisor more about extra resources he could take advantage of in that timeframe, and Mrs. Barlow suggested he look into the night classes USC offered to its students who were preparing for the LSATs. 

He had signed up for them the next day. Eddie was nothing if not determined to pass the exam. 

Now if only his little furball of a baby would stop thinking that his new books were a perfectly comfortable place to take her naps on…

“How am I gonna win Parker back if you keep on using my study materials as a bed, huh?” Eddie gently scolded. He then broke into a smile when all he got back in response was a small meow. 

“Okay baby, I need you to move now,” He picked her up and walked over to set her down on her actual bed located near his closet. She rarely used the thing, always opting to sleep on his bed at night and every other surface she could manage in the daytime; so imagine Eddie’s surprise when she immediately curled up into a ball the moment he sat her down. 

“All right then,” Eddie said to himself, and then eyed the daunting stack of books on his desk. “Let’s do this.”

———

As it turned out, when all you do with your free time is go to class and study (and of course, hang out with Faith and Adrian. There was no way he was giving up quality best friend time a few months before he had to leave them,  _ uh uh),  _ a month will pass by pretty fast.

Eddie had set a personal deadline early on that by the end of the first month, he would take his first practice test. 

And he felt pretty confident about it.

That was until he actually took it. 

The first twenty questions were easy, Eddie flew right past them with a smirk on his face. The second twenty were a little less easy. Those questions required a little more critical thinking, so Eddie took more time on them but still felt rejuvenated when he remembered what all his books taught him. 

The last fifty-nine were just plain fucking hard. By that point, Eddie’s brain couldn’t function or remember even the simplest of terms. He  _ knew  _ he had the information stored away in his brain somewhere, but he just couldn’t for the life of him access it. He had finished the test with a frown plastered on his face and glumly walked all the way to Adrian’s dorm so he could grade it. 

Adrian was in the shower when he arrived, but Don was there and had graciously offered up his pen marking skills. 

“Okay, here we go,” Don placed the pen down and stood up, handing his test back to him. Eddie took in a deep breath before glancing down at the bright red ink.

_ 143. _

“Fuck,” Eddie cursed in disappointment. He started flipping through the exam then. Biting his lip as he went over all the questions marked with red x’s. 

“What was the minimum score you needed again?” Don asked.

Eddie looked up from his test and sighed. “A 175.” 

“You still did good for your first try, Eddie. And hey, look on the bright side, you have another month to prepare. I circled the right answers for you, so you can look them over again and again.”

Eddie nodded, taking in what he said. He then sent Don a grateful smile. “Thanks again for grading this.” 

Don chuckled. “Glad to be of service while waiting for Adrian to be finished with one of his long showers.”

———

Eddie was even more determined to get a better score his second go at it. 

He doubled down on his studying, making brightly colored emergency flash cards this time around and his friends had volunteered to conduct mini quizzes for him every week. 

With time, he understood more of the material he missed. The names of laws and courtroom terms came easily to him now. He printed out another copy of his first practice exam and took it again. Eddie just about teared up when he discovered he scored a 170 this time around. 

Five whole points away. He really was getting closer. 

Before he knew it, month two had ended and his LSAT exam day was just around the corner.

The day of, Eddie left his room after giving a kiss to Mr. Gordo’s sleeping head and he ventured to the cafeteria and treated himself to a delicious breakfast. He always found that he did better on exams when his stomach was full. He then drove to the testing center an hour earlier than was required and went over his flash cards one more time. Mouthing along to the words printed on the cards, trying to remember every last bit of information he’d written. 

Ten minutes before he was due to check in, Eddie exited his car with his head held high and entered the building with his very own number two pencil tucked in his pocket.

———

**One month later...**

Two panicked phone calls equaled two excited friends barging into his dorm room in record time. 

“Guys, I can't do it. Someone has to open it for me and read the results,” Eddie said with wide eyes, throwing the letter in their direction. Throwing his  _ future  _ more like. Adrian caught it and wasted no time in opening it. 

Faith held his hand as they waited and Eddie hoped to god he didn’t end up breaking her hand from how hard he was gripping it for support. 

Adrian gasped and looked up with a giant smile. “179, you fucking nerd!” 

They all simultaneously screamed out in joy. Eddie was laughing uncontrollably as he was enveloped by their arms, feeling incredibly light as they all jumped around in a circle, celebrating the news.

They all collapsed on the floor sometime later, still with grins lining their faces. They’d made plans to officially celebrate the occasion later that night by going to a nearby bar and sing some karaoke while being completely drunk out of their minds.

With his head resting on Faith’s stomach and arm intertwined with Adrian’s, Eddie realized just how much he was going to miss them if he actually got accepted into Harvard.

It wasn’t all for nothing though.

He was doing this to see Parker again. To be with him. 

Eddie couldn’t wait to tell him all about how he achieved his goal.

He sighed contentedly to himself. All that was left now on his checklist was the admissions essay and Eddie already had a pretty good idea how he would go about that. 

———

_ “And that’s why you should vote for me. Eddie Kaspbrak. Future lawyer. For the class of 2004!” _

Eddie stood stock still, staring at the screen in  _ horror, _ as his video admissions essay had finished playing on Faith’s tv. He broke out of his shocked daze when he heard Faith burst into laughter next to him. 

“Oh my god?” Eddie cried out, because that was all he could say after seeing that. He frantically looked between the two of them. Faith walked away, wiping her eyes while still laughing and Adrian was standing calmly with his arms half crossed, holding up the tv remote to his lips to hide an amused smirk. 

“How did we write the entire script to this and not realize how bad it was?” Eddie asked in disbelief.

“I think you mean, how did  _ you  _ write the entire script and not realize how bad it was...” Adrian trailed off. 

It hit Eddie then.

“Oh, I hate you both,” Eddie shook his head as Adrian started laughing right when Faith seemed to be calming down. “I cannot believe both of you just let me make this monstrosity without saying a word!” Eddie’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

He took the tape out of the vhs player and walked out of Faith’s room with a huff, now more than determined to actually write out an admissions essay and submit it with his scores.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is definitely Harvard and I think it’s pretty obvious to those that are well familiar with the movie, that Richie will finally make an appearance 🥴
> 
> Eddie so isn’t ready for that or Harvard for that matter. We’ll see how that pans out though 👀
> 
> As we move along I hope all of you get a kick out of the IT characters I chose to fill in all of these roles xxx


	4. First day blues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harvard, Harvard, and more Harvard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was ridiculously meticulous about all the extra details I added about Harvard, ew. I learned more about this school this week than I ever wanted to learn...the things I do for reddie.
> 
> Also while writing this I realized that I unconsciously made Eddie’s bf (Parker) the douche from s4 of btvs???? So I may have borrowed three things from that show 💀
> 
> Anywho, guess who makes their first appearance in this one?! 
> 
> Enjoy 🙈

Eddie and the front receptionist of the university’s post office were on a first-name basis.

Not that Gloria was particularly enthused about that fact. 

Ever since he submitted his application a few weeks ago, Eddie became over-obsessed. Literally all he could think about was whether or not he received a response back from the Ivy League school. He’d call in every other day  _ (and sometimes twice a day too because there was always the chance that mail delivery could be running late...) _ and much to his disappointment, he’d always hear the same response back from Gloria:

_ No, not yet Eddie. _

And there were only so many ways the poor woman could politely say a variation of those words before getting annoyed and deciding to hang up altogether the second she heard his voice come through the receiver. The first time she did that, Eddie had stared at his phone in offense and had half a mind to pay her a special visit in person but in the end, he knew that it was a lost cause. 

There wasn’t going to be anything new in his mailbox. 

But this morning was different.  _ He _ actually got a call from her.

The loud ringing of his phone had woken him up and it took Eddie three tries to successfully stop the ringing from his prone position under his blanket. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he had barely got out a  _ hello  _ before his hearing was bombarded by a very bubbly Gloria telling him that his very important letter had finally come in. 

Fully wide awake, Eddie instantly slammed the phone back in its cradle and almost fell out of his bed in his haste to get to his closet and pick out clean clothes, because going out in his pjs again was  _ obviously _ off the table, even if he was just going to the post office at nine in the morning to pick up one letter.

And here it was in his hands, all official looking with his name printed under their fancy logo. 

Eddie turned it over and delicately peeled the tab open like he did with all of his mail. He pulled the letter out and unfolded it, his eyes immediately finding his name at the top and he began to read.

_ Dear Edward Kaspbrak, _

_ We are excited to inform you of your acceptance into— _

Eddie let out a soft gasp then as he sunk to his knees on the floor next to his bed, staring at nothing now as he clutched the piece of paper in both of his hands. He didn’t need to read the rest. At least, not now he didn’t. 

All he needed to know was right there in that first sentence. 

_ He got in. _

The feeling of total elation overwhelmed him then. Eddie glanced to his right and spotted his phone sitting on his nightstand.  _ He needed to tell someone. _ Eddie made a grab for the handset and held it up to his ear, dialing a number he knew all too well.

His vision grew blurry as he waited for the person on the other end to pick up. 

“Hey dad, guess what?” Eddie asked with a shaky grin. He reached up with his other hand to wipe away the stray tear that had fallen down his cheek.

It was official. He was going to see Parker again. __

———

Faith and Adrian threw him a going away party a month later and Eddie would be lying if he said he didn’t sob like a baby at the end of the night. He had hugged them one last time, most likely cutting off their circulation too with how tightly he wrapped his arms around them, and promised profusely that he wouldn’t be a stranger once he left. He would at least call once a week, and surely talk their ears off about reuniting with Parker and his progress with his classes. 

The former they wanted to hear, and the latter...not so much.

The next morning Eddie had loaded all of his essentials into his car, including one moody Mr. Gordo, and set off on his estimated three day road trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now he could’ve purchased a plane ticket to get there much faster—his parents had even advised him to do exactly that—but Eddie refused because he couldn’t bear putting Mr. Gordo through the stress of flying. 

Plus, he was also super attached to his silver Boxster. There was no way he was giving his other baby up just because he was moving to another state. 

After several days filled with long periods of driving (he had a strict schedule he needed to stick to if he wanted to arrive right on moving day), innocent stops at fast-food joints, and staying at moderately nice motels at night, Eddie finally arrived at his destination and looked in awe at the eye-catching sight of the school’s unique architecture peeking through the numerous trees that lined the perimeter. 

Once he swerved his car onto campus and found a decent parking spot by his new dorm (if he read the signs correctly), Eddie relaxed in his seat and happily tapped a random tune against the wheel. He then turned to Mr. Gordo, who sat in her fancy mesh carrier in the passenger seat, and smiled.

“Let’s go look at our new home, yeah?” Eddie unbuckled his seatbelt and grabbed the carrier with one hand before exiting his car. And not wanting his things stolen while he was away, Eddie pressed the button near the console to put the top of his Boxster down. 

_Not that he doubted the integrity of his fellow Harvard attendees...but_ _still. Better safe than sorry._

Eddie narrowly avoided colliding with bustling students around him as he entered North Hall, a building he picked solely because he wanted a single room. He held the carrier close to his side when again, another student almost bumped into him, and he silently cursed his small stature with an eye roll. Eddie then found a small alcove next to the common area, and stood there waiting for the traffic to pass, and took note of his surroundings.

Plain, white walls paired with sparse lighting  _ and _ drab red furniture? 

One word came to his mind: yikes.

_For_ _a school as fancy as Harvard, one would think that their living spaces would be a little more lively..._ Eddie simply shrugged then and turned a corner to walk down the now less busy hallway.

Or so he thought-

A shove to his shoulder jostled him.

“Sorry, man,” A faceless man said to his right as he hurried down the hall. Eddie huffed to himself, the least he could do was look at him when apologizing. 

Eddie walked a few more paces and found a stairwell. He quickly climbed up the steps to the second floor and felt himself grow less tense when he saw that it was mostly empty of people and instead occupied by the occasional box next to an open door.

_ 212...214…216. Here it was. Finally. _

Eddie turned the knob and opened the door to his new room and  _ yup, _ he made the right decision when choosing a single dorm again. The privacy was exactly what he and his baby needed. Eddie closed the door behind him and smiled as he finally put the carrier down to let Mr. Gordo stretch her legs and roam around the new space. Once she was unzipped from her mesh prison, she immediately jumped on top of the empty desk in the far right corner and made herself at home by grooming herself. 

_ Lovely.  _

With a shake of his head, Eddie fell back against the full-size bare mattress and closed his eyes, suddenly feeling the weight of the entire day hitting him. He woke up right at the crack of dawn today and then drove for four hours, only giving himself a few breaks to eat and use the restroom in between. 

All he wanted to do right now was rest, and he finally had the opportunity to do so. 

It was barely noon and his car was safely locked, so Eddie figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a quick power nap and fuss with getting the rest of his belongings later and making his dorm a bit more homey. 

———

Dressed to the nines in his best shirt and jeans (the ones that hugged his ass  _ perfectly,  _ because you never know when he could run into Parker…) the next afternoon, Eddie entered the section of the quad with the banner  _ “Welcome Law Students Class of 2004” _ hanging over the front two brick pillars. Other first years were milling about around him in circles, making chit chat with their welcome packets in hand. 

He was supposed to be picking up his welcome packet today too and Eddie didn’t know what to expect from it. 

He approached the middle booth labeled  _ “First-Year Law Students”  _ and stood there, waiting for the older boy that manned the booth, dressed in a Harvard sweatshirt, to look up from his clipboard. When he didn’t, Eddie cleared his throat. 

“Hi,” Eddie said with a polite smile. 

“Hi,” The older boy replied without glancing up. “Name?” He asked.

“Oh, Kaspbrak comma Edward.” Eddie waited patiently as he flipped through the pages on his clipboard and checked off his name. The older boy then thumbed through one of the plastic containers on the table and handed him a packet.

“This is your class schedule, map, and book list.” 

“Um, has Parker Cunningham checked in yet?” Eddie asked.

The boy finally looked up at him with a dubious expression on his face, but nonetheless, checked for Parker’s name on his clipboard a moment later. “He hasn’t.”

“Can I just take a peek at his schedule then? Real quick, I promise.” Eddie assured him.

“Are you a stalker or something?” He asked, eyeing him warily. 

“No! I just- We’re friends and I lost his number during the move…” Eddie trailed off with a frown.

The older boy put his clipboard down with a sigh. “Look, first-years sometimes have one or two classes together. You’ll run into him your first week.” 

Nodding, Eddie thanked him and left the booth. Once he exited the quad, Eddie looked through his packet and took out his schedule. 

_ Maybe if he looked at it hard enough, he and Parker would have some of the same classes. _

———

The semester officially started a week later.

A whole week there and he still hadn’t run into Parker, but Eddie wasn’t worried.  _ Yet. _ Hell, there was no guarantee that Parker was even living on campus like he was, so Eddie figured he’d start worrying when another week had gone by and he still hadn’t seen him in any of his classes.

For now, he was just excited about attending his first law class today. 

Eddie stood in front of his mirror, admiring his  _ first day _ outfit with a smirk on his face.  _ Oh, I totally look the part.  _

And he did. He was wearing a pastel green button down with a black sweater vest on top, and black slacks on the bottom. Just the right amount of formal he was going for without looking too stiff. 

Running his hands down his shirt again, making sure there weren't any stray cat hairs, Eddie nodded at his reflection and then turned to say goodbye to Mr. Gordo.

“Okay, wish me luck on my first day, Gordy.” He waved to her as he walked out the door with a small journal in his hand. Eddie locked the door behind him with his key and fished in his pocket for his folded up schedule, double checking where his first class was and its room number. 

Not even six minutes later, Eddie spotted Hauser Hall and he quickly made his way into the building in the midst of other students trying to get in through the double doors like himself. He held his journal to his chest as he went up the main stairs and onto the third floor where his class was located. Eddie rounded a corner and suddenly stopped short in the middle of the hallway when he saw a familiar dark head of hair standing by a cork board and peering down at a book in his hands. 

_ Parker.  _

Feeling his heart beat faster in his chest, Eddie gripped his journal tighter in his hands and steeled himself for what he was about to do. 

With an air of confidence surrounding him, Eddie started walking in Parker’s direction. When he got within talking distance, Eddie lifted his journal to quickly smack him in the shoulder, and moved to pass him as if the incident never happened.

(And as far as Eddie knew, he never saw Parker in the hallway. Nope).

Parker’s reaction was immediate. “Hey! What the fu—Eddie?!” 

God, he missed him so much.

Eddie turned around, feigning shock. “Parker? Oh my god, hi, it’s so good to see you!” Parker’s eyes were wildly moving over his frame, while his mouth was open in shock. Eddie almost let out a giggle. Seeing him so bewildered was too cute for words. 

Committed to his act, Eddie thoughtfully lifted a hand to his chin. “You know, I totally forgot you were going here too.” 

_ “Too?”  _ Parker repeated and then he shook his head with a frown marring his face. “Wait, what’re you talking about? You’re not here to see me?” 

“No, silly. I go here.”

“You go where?” Parker asked, still looking confused.

“Don’t be dense,” Eddie playfully rolled his eyes. “Harvard.  _ Law School.” _ He emphasized with a nod. 

Parker’s face went slack.  _ “You  _ got into Harvard Law?” 

“What, like it’s hard?” Eddie smiled sweetly at him and then made a show of checking his wrist watch. “Oh shoot, sorry to cut this short but I have to get to class. Can you meet me after though? By the benches?” He asked, biting down on his bottom lip. 

_ Please say yes. Please say yes. Please say— _

“Um, sure?” Parker said.

“Great! I’ll see you later!” Eddie turned away with a small wave and headed down the hallway. 

_ Always leave them wanting more,  _ Eddie thought with a proud smirk.

He almost did a happy dance then. Their reunion was everything he had wanted and more. He had acted with the most perfect balance of both nonchalance and happiness, and Eddie  _ so _ didn’t miss the way his attitude threw Parker for a loop. 

Soon enough, he’ll have him wrapped around his pinky finger again and they’ll pick up right where they left off last Spring.

He suddenly couldn’t wait for his class to be over. 

Eddie walked into his Civil Procedures class in a happy daze. He snapped out of it though when he felt someone bump into his shoulder.

_That_ successfully dimmed his mood.

Sighing, Eddie spotted an open seat in the front row and immediately hurried over to take it when finding zero open spaces left in the middle and back rows. He sat down and opened his journal to the first page, delicately smoothing over the bind in the middle with a press of his hand. Eddie then took out a pencil from his shirt pocket and placed it vertically on the blank page. 

_ Absolutely perfect. _ Eddie grinned while looking down at his neat setup.

He curiously glanced to his left then, wanting to be polite and introduce himself to his neighbor, but he frowned slightly when he saw he had a laptop on his desk. 

_ Oh? _

Eddie directed his gaze to his right and saw that the girl next to him  _ also _ had a laptop on her desk. 

_ Oh fuck. _

Feeling his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach, Eddie whipped his head around the class. Desperately trying to find at least one person in the same boat as him with just a notebook in their possession. 

But he found nothing but a sea of black laptops.

“Oh my god,” Eddie softly muttered to himself right when his professor strided through the door.

Professor Keene walked to the front board with a piece of chalk in his hand and began writing. “A legal education means that you will learn to speak in a new language. You will be taught to achieve insight into the world around you and to sharply question what you know.” He finished his mini speech with a flourish, drawing a line under his name on the board. 

He dropped the chalk onto his desk and then leveled them all with a stare. Eddie looked away when a clipboard was passed to him.

It was a seating chart. 

“The seat you picked will be yours for the next nine months of your life. Try to enjoy it.” 

He quickly wrote his name down in the small square on the page and handed it to the girl next to him. 

“And to those of you in the front row—beware.” Professor Keene smiled then and walked over to collect the clipboard from her. “Let’s begin shall we? I assume you’ve all read pages 1–48 and are now well-versed in subject matter jurisdiction. Who can tell us about Gordon v. Steele?” 

_ There was homework?! _

Eddie frantically looked around as everybody—literally  _ everybody _ —took out their book from wherever the hell they stored it and opened it up to the pages Keene said. 

“No one? Fine, let’s call on someone in the hot zone.” 

_ It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine,  _ all he had to do was read those pages after class and then he’ll be caught up. Keeping his cool, Eddie grabbed his pencil and focused on writing notes at the top of his page, never noticing that his professor came closer to his desk. 

“Edward Kaspbrak, did diversity jurisdiction exist in this case?”

With wide eyes, Eddie straightened in his seat and shyly looked up. “Hmm?” 

“Did it?” Professor Keene asked again. 

“Oh, I wasn’t aware we had an assignment.” Eddie said with a nervous laugh. He waited with bated breath as his professor stood there in front of him with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Very well then.” Eddie relaxed as Keene peered down at his chart again, moving on. “Stanley Uris?”

Eddie's gaze tracked over to where Professor Keene was looking behind him, at a curly headed boy who was sitting a few rows away with his arms crossed. Keene then walked towards Stanley’s desk. He stopped right next to it and continued his line of questioning. “Now do you think it’s acceptable that Mr. Kaspbrak came unprepared?” 

Eddie sent Stanley a mortified smile, hoping he’d help him out. 

Stanley just stared back. “No, I don’t.”

Eddie’s face fell.

_ What the hell was his problem? _

“So you would support my decision to ask him to leave and return to class only when he is prepared?” Eddie flushed guiltily under Keene’s stare. 

“Absolutely.” Stanley nodded and his mouth twitched into a smile.

Silence followed and with his entire face feeling warmer than normal, Eddie stood up. He gathered both his notebook and pencil and did the worst walk of shame of his life in front of the entire class.

Once the heavy door was closed behind him, Eddie buried his face against the cover of his journal and groaned.

He looked up again a moment later and wondered where the nearest restroom was. 

———

After having a good cry over how his first law class went, Eddie went outside and stomped towards the benches he’d said he’d meet Parker by, in a sour mood and with a scowl planted on his face. 

Eddie failed to see the stack of papers occupying the bench until it was too late.

(Or the man sitting there too).

Eddie startled when he felt his butt hit the stack. “Oh god, I’m sorry,” He said as he stood up again and sent an apologetic smile to the man. 

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I think they needed the lap dance anyway.” The man joked as he picked up the stack and put it on top of his overturned briefcase that laid on his lap. He then extended his left hand out, offering him the free spot.

Eddie thought about sitting down again.

He looked nice enough. He seemed way less uptight too than most of the students here— _ especially Stupid Stanley Uris,  _ Eddie thought with a glower—with his half loosened tie hanging on his collar and his black hair bordering on messy, not gelled back like most of the men here.

His black, thick-framed glasses also suited him. 

_ What the hell,  _ Eddie sat back down with a heavy sigh.

“Bad first day, huh?” 

“Ugh, you have no idea.” Eddie muttered. 

“Dare I ask what happened?” The man raised an eyebrow, and his mere curiosity was all Eddie needed to open up.

“Not even five minutes in, I got called on in class and I didn’t know the stupid answer. I didn’t even know we had homework due before today!” Eddie unconsciously scooted closer to him as he ranted. “And it was so humiliating too because I realized I was literally the only one there without my book, but the only reason I didn’t get it yet was because I figured I would have time, you know? Like the first week of classes is always a meet and greet situation and going over the syllabus together, so I was totally blindsided by everything and h-he just kicked me out! Can you believe that?”

Eddie was slightly breathless as he finished. He sometimes tended to not take breaks when on a tirade. 

He watched as the man slowly nodded in understanding and made a face. “I’m sorry, how old are you again?” 

Eddie let out a snort despite himself. “Shut up.” He gently nudged him in the side with his elbow. 

The man barked out a laugh. “Yeah, sorry to be the one to tell you this but this preppy school isn’t anything like normal colleges. They always jump right into the good stuff on the first day, with or without you.” 

“Well now I know,” Eddie said, fiddling with his hands in his lap.

“Was Keene the one that kicked you out?” 

Eddie looked at him in surprise. “Yeah! Did he kick you out too?”

“Hey, I know that look. Just because you experienced this, doesn’t mean that you get to wish that trauma on first-year-me too.” He lightly admonished him and Eddie’s cheeks hurt from smiling. “And no, but he did make me almost cry once after I turned in a less than satisfactory paper. I’m just surprised you’re not in the same state right now.” 

“Oh don’t worry, I totally cried in the restroom right after.” Eddie admitted. “And thank god no one walked in on me, like I needed to deal with any more humiliation after  _ that.”  _

“It gets better, trust me.” The man grinned and then held out his hand. “Here, give me your schedule.”

Eddie scrunched his nose in confusion but took out the folded up piece of paper and gave it to him. 

“They never change it up, huh” He commented as he looked over his schedule. “Okay uh, Bowers, he likes to act indifferent but one smart comment will secretly impress him. That’s how you’ll ace his class, he likes people who speak up and share their opinion. Sit in the back for Sumner’s, he tends to spit when talking about products liability—”

“Ew, but okay.” Eddie readily agreed. 

“And make sure to read the footnotes in Hoffman’s class. That’s where all her exam questions come from.” Eddie eagerly nodded and accepted his schedule back.

“Wow, I’m glad I sat on your papers. I’m Eddie, by the way.” He extended out his hand for a handshake.

“Richie.” His hand was then engulfed by Richie’s. 

And  _ Richie? _ Eddie liked it. A lot.

He also liked him.

Their hands separated a moment later.

“Are you a third-year?” Eddie asked. 

“No, I’m—”

“Eddie,” Parker’s voice greeted him and Eddie looked up in his direction, finding him standing a few feet away from where he and Richie were sitting.

_ He couldn’t believe he lost track of time!  _

He instantly shot up out of his seat with a beaming grin. “Parker, hi!” Eddie drifted closer and stopped to stand in front of him. 

It really was _so good_ to see him again.

“So...how was your first class.” Parker asked and he seemed like he was wary of his response too. Weird. 

“Fine. Except—get this. There was this horrible guy who made me look bad in front of my entire class.” Eddie rolled his eyes but waved it off in the next second, wanting to get away from this topic. “But it’s whatever. You’re here now.” Eddie reached out to give his hand a squeeze, but Parker tugged his hand out of his grasp.

“Who was that?” He asked, pointing a finger behind Eddie.

His eyes widened as it dawned on him. 

“Fuck, where are my manners?” Eddie muttered. “Sorry. Parker, this is Ri—” He turned to the bench to properly introduce the two of them but found it empty instead. 

Eddie couldn’t help but frown in disappointment. He didn’t even get the chance to ask for his number. 

“Oh, that was Richie. He’s really nice and he gave me great advice just now.” When Parker didn’t say anything in response, Eddie decided to wipe the slate clean. “So, how was your summer? Did you do anything exciting?” 

“Not really, I—” Parker’s face paled then as a hand snaked around his chest from behind and Eddie felt the blow to his chest when Parker stroked the hand and moved to the side to introduce the owner to him. 

The second blow came when he recognized who it was. 

_ Stupid Stanley Uris. _

“Have you met Stanley, yet?” Parker said with a hesitant lilt to his voice, and there he was standing next to him. So close to his side that it made Eddie want to vomit. 

“I think we’ve met.” Stanley said, giving him a flat look. 

Eddie scoffed and looked to Parker. “You know him?” He asked and Parker winced.

“Well...”

“I’m his fiancé.” Stanley brought his left hand to rest on Parker’s shoulder and Eddie’s whole world fell apart when his words registered and he recognized the family ring on his finger. 

The ring that was supposed to be  _ his.  _

“What is he talking about?” Eddie asked in a low voice, raising his eyes to Parker’s. His height had always intimidated him but Eddie felt like the giant now with his ex cowering beneath his heated look. 

“Stanley was my boyfriend at prep school. We got back together the week I went back home to visit my family...” Parker didn’t meet his eyes as he explained.

_ He had cheated on him?  _ Eddie’s lip trembled as he tried to blink back his tears.

There was no way he was going to cry in front of them. He’d wait like he did before. 

And wasn’t it just the icing on the cake that this would be the second time he’d cry today?

“Parker told me all about you. You’re just famous at our Club,” Stanley simpered. “He just didn’t tell me you’d be here though.” 

“Believe me, I didn’t know he’d be.” 

Feeling faint, Eddie rushed off without another word, not even caring what the  _ happy couple  _ would think of him, and he stormed to the area where he knew his car was parked. 

He desperately needed a little pick-me-up after the day he’s had. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m still laughing at the fact that I made both Mr. Keene and Officer Bowers the main professors here. 
> 
> Salon scene is coming up next and I think it’s pretty clear who’s going to show up there 🥺🥺
> 
> Thanks for reading everyone xxxx


	5. Dammit, Janet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unlocked new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btvs references count: ...4 🤩 (Nothing new in this one though, I just cant count)
> 
> TWO NEW LOSERS IN THIS ONE! A quick guess on who?
> 
> This was a trip to write. I opened a new doc five hours ago and this was the product...it’s 7 AM. Idk how I’m still alive 💀💀
> 
> Okay! Happy reading everyone 💝!

A loud honk to his right jarred Eddie enough that all of the despair he was feeling at the moment evaporated instantly into anger. 

“Fuck off!” He screamed in their direction, making sure to blare his own horn at them too, so they got his message loud and clear. So what if he almost swerved into their lane? He was wiping his tears away and his grip had slipped! Honest mistakes like that happened! It would’ve been a lot more dangerous for Eddie to reach across the console for the pack of tissues in his glove compartment, so really, they should be thankful he only used his hand this time.

Eddie sped up, successfully passing the offending car with his middle finger up in the air, and then impulsively turned a corner onto a fairly busy street lined with quaint little shops.  _ God, _ did he hope that there was a bakery here somewhere… His eyes spotted a beauty salon then, and Eddie hit the breaks with a gasp.

More honks came, but he ignored them this time.

_ Finally, something good was going his way today.  _ Eddie sniffled as he quickly parked in front of the salon and got out, practically racing to the glass door. He pulled it open and immediately his ears were bombarded by the sound of the little bell above him ringing.

Eddie held back a whimper,  _ his usual place back in LA made the same sound too. _

He bypassed the front desk and rushed to the only empty manicure station left.

“Is this seat taken?” Eddie asked the red-haired woman that sat on the other side of the table. The name tag on her blouse read  _ Beverly,  _ and Eddie briefly thought to himself that it was a pretty and unique name. He’d never met anyone named Beverly before. Without waiting for an answer, he plopped himself down in the chair and brought his arms forward to rest on top of the station.

Beverly studied his hands. “Oh honey, your nails are fine. You don’t need any work on them.” 

“I know but-” To his horror, Eddie felt a snot bubble coming up, so he quickly reached for a tissue from the small box and blew his nose. “I just um, I need—”

Beverly shot him a sympathetic look. “Need to vent?” She finished for him. 

Eddie desperately nodded. “I’ll pay you for your time, I promise. What’s the price for a simple manicure here?” 

“Nonsense,” She held up her hand. “I live for these types of sessions. They make the slow days more interesting, so please indulge me. Spill.”

The floodgates opened.

“I worked really hard for months to get into law school,  _ Harvard Law School,  _ and I blew off so many nights out with my amazing friends to study for the stupid LSATs, all the while trying to keep my grades near perfect until the end of the semester, because you need a high GPA and I was afraid that if mine even lowered a fourth of a point, Harvard would throw my application away!” Eddie stopped for a moment to blow his nose again and then continued.

“I spent so much money on test prep books too, which I can’t even sell because I covered every page with diligent notes, and I then spent the entire summer applying for every scholarship I was eligible for, all in preparation for this day! So I could finally reunite with my ex boyfriend and get him back, but now he’s engaged to this awful guy, Stanley, so it was all for nothing!”

He felt the tears leaving his eyes, but Eddie didn’t bother wiping them away. “I just feel so stupid, I should’ve never came here,” He muttered.

Beverly reached across the table to lay her hand on his. “You’re not stupid, not by a long shot. He is, for moving on so quickly. Now, this may not have been the outcome you wanted but you got into one of the most prestigious schools in the country! That’s still something to be proud of, with or without your ex by your side.” She handed him another tissue and Eddie accepted it with a small smile. 

She really was the first person that’s been nice to him since he got here. Well, besides Richie, but Eddie already screwed that up by leaving the bench without so much as a goodbye to the man. 

“Please tell me your dating life is better than mine.”

“You sat at the wrong station. My ex was the definition of an asshole.” Beverly shook her head. “He was the reason I dropped out of college and didn’t have a job for a long time. I should’ve left him years before I actually did.” 

Eddie’s heart lurched for her. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“It’s fine, sweetie,” Beverly patted his hand with a smile. “It doesn’t hurt to think about that part of my life anymore. I got out of that situation and that’s all that matters.” Eddie smiled back, feeling a little bit more like himself again. 

“So, what’s this Stanley got that you don’t have?” Beverly asked.

_ Oh, right. Stupid Stanley Uris still existed,  _ Eddie resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“He’s apparently the kind of man Parker feels that he should be with. They both belong to the same country club, if that should tell you anything.”

Beverly scoffed. “Is he as good-looking as you?” 

Eddie frowned, thinking about it. “If he lost the scowl then okay, yeah, but his bitchy attitude totally makes him unattractive.” 

The bell above the door jingled again and in walked a— _ wow,  _ very tall and handsome UPS delivery man. His brown uniform seemed like it was tailored specifically with his physique in mind, which again,  _ wow.  _

“Hello, ladies!” The man said with a giant grin. He handed the medium sized box and clipboard he was carrying, over to the cashier to sign. He then glanced over in their direction and waved at Beverly.

_ Interesting,  _ Eddie looked at red head to gauge her reaction and found Beverly completely frozen, with her eyes trained on him. 

_ Even more interesting,  _ he thought.

“Aren’t you going to wave back?” He asked.

Beverly snapped out of her daze. “Right!” She waved back a little bit unsteadily, but the man seemed to brighten the second she did. Eddie waited until he exited the salon to start in on his teasing. 

“So, he was cute…” Eddie began fishing with a tiny smirk.

Beverly looked back at him. “Uh yeah...he is.” She angled the circular mirror on the table towards her and checked over her reflection with a critical eye.

Eddie hummed. “I wonder how big his dick is.” 

“What?!” The mirror fell with a clatter and several bottles of nail polish got knocked over. Beverly fixed him with a look, causing him to let out a giggle. 

“You like him. What’s his name?”

“I do not like him and his name is Ben.” She said as she straightened up the fallen bottles. “Just Ben. Delivery Guy Ben. Nothing special about him.” She said in a breezy sort of way while shaking her head. 

“You’re lying but I’ll let it go considering we just met.” 

“Thanks so much,” Beverly responded back sarcastically. She then switched her tone into a more serious one. “So what’s next for you?” 

Eddie sighed. What  _ was  _ next for him? He didn’t really know. Parker was engaged to another man, but despite today, despite  _ everything,  _ Eddie still wanted him back. They were a great couple (one of the best, he swore) and Eddie was  _ happy _ back then. No one ever made him feel as special as Parker did.

He yearned, more than anything, for their relationship to just go back to the way it was, pre-forced break up. 

Deep down, he knew that Parker still loved him.

“I want him back. I still do,” He said. 

Beverly nodded. “You’re sure this Parker guy is  _ the one?”  _

“Definitely,” Eddie said with conviction. “I love him- he’s the love of my life.”

“Well, what are you waiting for then? Steal him back.” She winked at him and Eddie didn’t feel like the sky was falling anymore.

Parker wasn’t married yet. It wasn’t official.

He still had a chance. 

Eddie left the salon an hour later with Beverly’s number in his pocket. His first  _ real  _ friend here, he felt overjoyed. He silently made a pact with himself that he’ll visit her at least twice a week, on days where his classes ended early in the afternoons. 

———

Upon entering his Criminal Law class two days later, in just a casual t-shirt and jeans (he sadly gave up the sophisticated look after his first day), Eddie noted with a pleased smile that he was early this time around to have his pick at a number of empty seats. He clocked one in the back row and hurried to it, climbing the steps  _ with  _ both his journal and textbook in hand.

Eddie was thankfully more prepared this time around than he was in Keene’s class. After he drove back to campus after meeting Bev, he hauled ass to the university’s library and checked out every book that was on his list. He still didn’t have a laptop, a purchase he has so far avoided, thanks to Faith and Adrian’s generosity with sharing theirs, but it was still the beginning of the semester. He definitely had time to get one later, he wasn’t in a hurry.

He spaced out for a bit as he sat all ready for class to begin, waiting for more students to rush in, and before he knew it Professor Bowers was walking in with his briefcase and setting it upright on the floor, next to his desk. 

The seat to Eddie’s right was empty.  _ Hmm,  _ not a full class for once.

“Morning everyone—that will be the first and last time you’ll ever hear me say that. There’s no time for pleasantries in my class.” He grabbed a stack of papers from his desk and started dividing them up by smaller sections, handing them to a person in each column. “This is the overview of a previous case I’ve had the pleasure of working on. We’ll be looking over this today and studying every little detail that was involved. The defendant was guilty, as they usually are, but the prosecution didn’t have enough evidence to insure a jury would convict. A plea deal was made and my client barely served five years. He should’ve served twenty-five. I still got paid, so happy ending for us all.”

Finding that to be a lot of information to process in under a minute, Eddie wildly looked around the room to see if anyone was as flabbergasted as he was, and he really was way too curious for his own good.

Eddie felt a tug in his chest when he caught sight of Parker and Stanley sitting together just a few rows ahead of him. Stanley’s left hand was proudly resting on Parker’s shoulder and he just knew right away that he’d done that on purpose to show off the ring. 

Eddie looked away with a huff. This was his third class with him and only his first with Parker. Oh why did that older student have to be right when saying that he’d share some of the same classes with first-years?

Bowers droned on. “Now this class is difficult but it shouldn’t be too much if you pay attention and focus on your work. I work part-time here and part-time at my very own practice, I still am an accomplished defense attorney and I do take on several cases throughout the year. I am telling you all this so you’ll understand why my office hours are a little tricky, but like I said, if you put in the work, you won’t need to talk to me out of class at all.”

He leaned back against his desk and crossed his arms. “I should warn you that in addition to competing against each other for the top grade in this class, you’ll also be competing for one of my firm’s highly coveted four internship spots next year where you will get to assist on actual cases. Let the bloodbath begin.”

The entire class let out murmurs in excitement of the news and even though Eddie tried not to, he glanced down to see Parker’s reaction, and found him and Stanley talking animatedly about it. 

“Now, let’s commence with our usual torture—” He picked up a clip board that laid next to him on his desk and read from it. 

“Mr. Kaspbrak—”

_ Fuck me.  _ Why did it always have to be him?!

Eddie tentatively raised his hand to get Bowers’ attention and he heard a few snickers throughout the room. He rolled his eyes, so apparently he shared a couple of classes with some of the folks in here too, huh?

“Would you rather have a client who committed a crime malum in se or malum prohibitum?” Professor Bowers asked him. 

_!!!! He knew those terms!! _

“Neither,” Eddie simply answered. 

His professor raised an eyebrow. “And why not?” 

He almost laughed then. The answer was so glaringly obvious. 

“Well, I’d rather have a client who’s innocent.” Eddie smiled, feeling proud of himself for getting through the question. 

Or at least he was, until some of the students around him actually laughed, Stanley included. He didn’t even want to imagine what Parker’s reaction was. Eddie’s face felt hot yet again. 

“Dare to dream, Mr. Kaspbrak.” Eddie sunk lower in his seat in embarrassment at hearing his professor’s dismissive tone. 

“Mr. Uris?”  _ What were the fucking chances— _ “Which would you prefer?”

Stanley sat rimrod straight in his seat. “Malum prohibitum,” He shot a sly look over his shoulder at Eddie. “Because the client would’ve committed a regulatory infraction as opposed to a dangerous crime.” 

Eddie almost let out a scoff. 

Bowers nodded. “Exactly the answer I was looking for. The client in this case—”

Thinking about it real quick, going over Richie’s advice, Eddie raised his hand. 

“Yes, Mr. Kaspbrak?” Bowers asked. 

“I changed my mind. I’d pick the dangerous one.” He waited for Stanley to look over his shoulder again. “Good defense attorneys don’t shy away from the tougher cases, and I’m not afraid of a challenge.” He smiled sweetly down at him, a smile not unlike the one Stanley had sent him in Keene’s class. 

Stanley just scowled back. 

_ All was fair in love and war, right? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Richie will be back in the next one 🥴🥴🥴 It’s sweet, 100%.
> 
> The next chapter of meant to be is coming soon, I promise! Everyone has my permission to yell at me for being slow. Idk why, but I’m just super slow and particular about writing in Richie’s pov 😤😤🤚
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed this one! Leave a kudos or comment if you want :D Have a great day/night ❤️❤️


	6. We gotta stop eating like this

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie goes to the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I now get ads about the LSATs and just Harvard in general...great 🥴
> 
> As promised, Richie appears in this one again 💕💕
> 
> I hope y’all enjoy this one 💜

The rest of the week and the next, flew by without much progress on Eddie’s end. He wasn’t any closer to winning Parker back than he was three months ago, and he tried not to be discouraged by it.

Much to Eddie’s disappointment, he and Parker only shared the one class, and he couldn’t even take advantage of that fact. As it turned out, there weren't  _ any  _ opportunities for group work in Bowers’ class, they were all confined to their desks for the entirety of each lecture, and the times that he tried to approach his ex after class, Mr. Snooty Pants would insistently drag Parker away by the hand before Eddie could even get a word in edgewise. 

But  _ no,  _ he wasn’t going to worry about this too much yet. It was barely the beginning of the semester. 

Eddie still had time.  _ Plenty  _ of it. 

He just had to figure out other ways he could hang out with Parker, which shouldn’t be hard, right?

Study groups were his saving grace. This was going to be the thing that’ll change his luck, Eddie was sure of it. 

Everyone on campus seemed to have already belonged to one, surprisingly the first-years too, which made Eddie feel even more confused and a bit self-conscious about his serious lack of social interaction on campus.

When did they have the time to form them and how did they do it so quickly? It didn’t make sense considering it was only the end of the second week, so  _ what the fuck? _

Eddie knew he had to join one quickly, or else he really  _ will _ be the odd one out amongst his peers (not that he already sort of...wasn’t), and he was hellbent on joining Parker’s. 

_ Mr. Stick-up-his-butt would just have to deal. _

Thanks to Betty’s (Stanley’s equally snooty friend,  _ eye roll)  _ big mouth today in class, Eddie knew exactly where to find them. After neatly arranging the store-bought mini blueberry muffins in his cute, little wicker basket, Eddie said a quick goodbye to Mr. Gordo’s sleeping body and started making his way outside his dormitory and towards the university's library.

The sweets in his hands were the perfect icebreaker in asking to join Parker’s study group tonight. Everybody needed snack breaks when studying, so Eddie had no doubt that he would be welcomed with delighted smiles when they saw what he‘d brought.

It also didn’t hurt that Parker’s favorite type of baked goods were blueberry muffins…

_ He so had it in the bag,  _ Eddie smirked as he entered the library. He looked around for a bit, trying to find Parker at any of the packed tables, and he found him a minute later at one of the tables located in the back. 

Mustering up his customer service smile, Eddie walked up the table and placed the basket on the edge of it, successfully getting the attention of everyone there. Eddie turned his head away from Stanley and focused on Parker, which worked perfectly for him since they were sitting directly across from each other at the end of the table. 

“Hi, I’m here to join your study group and look!” He held up the basket for emphasis. “I brought sustenance, so—”

“Eddie, what are you doing here?” Parker asked him with a frown and Eddie was slightly taken aback by his reaction. Wasn’t he happy to see him?

“I already told you. Here, why don’t you try a muffin. I have enough for everyone.”

“I’m allergic to blueberries.” Stanley piped up from his left and Eddie steeled himself to look over in his direction. 

“Then I guess you won’t have anything tonight.” He simply said.

Stanley narrowed his eyes at him. “Now that’s not nice.” He said in a patronizing tone and slyly bringing his hand up to fiddle with his- his fucking ring _in front_ of him.

Eddie innerly seethed. 

He missed the nervous looks Parker kept shooting towards them. 

“Fine,” Eddie said through his teeth. “Why don’t you make a list of your allergies and I’ll keep them in mind when shopping for baked goodies next time.” 

“Eddie—” Parker began.

“There isn’t going to be a next time. Our group is full.” 

Eddie opened his mouth in shock. “There’s literally an empty seat right next to Parker.” He pointed towards it.

“Samantha couldn’t make it tonight actually,” Another first-year student from the other end of the table, informed him. Eddie somewhat recognized him from his Contracts class. 

“Well, I can easily pull up an extra chair for every meet-up...” He looked to Parker for some much needed assistance, but the other man was no help at all. He was having a silent conversation with Stanley instead. 

Eddie wanted to stomp his foot in frustration. 

“Still not gonna work,” Betty spoke up with a sneer. “You also have to be smart to join, which you’re obviously not. I mean, we all saw your blunder in Keene’s class on the first day. He asked a question about a simple case and you couldn’t answer it. I don’t even think you lasted a whole ten minutes in there, how embarrassing for you, really.” She pouted her lips mockingly. The rest of the table didn’t bother hiding their snickers from him. 

Eddie gripped the handle of the basket tighter in his hands as he felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment. Once again, he couldn’t bear to face Parker’s reaction, if he even had one. 

“I’ve since then landed on my feet and for your information, I had a 4.0 at USC—”

“Yeah, for  _ fashion,”  _ Betty rolled her eyes.

_ How did she even know that?  _ Eddie’s head swivelled towards Parker, and all he got back was a soft head shake.

“Like Stanley said, we’re full.” She dismissed him.

“I think we can make room for one more, guys…” Parker said. 

Stanley firmly shook his head. “We’ve already assigned the outlines, and everyone has started theirs.” He looked up at Eddie. “The answer is no.” He pushed the basket away with his pen.

Eddie sighed as he looked around the table again. Everyone was back to having their noses buried in their books as if they’d already forgotten about him. Picking the basket up, he glumly peered down at the muffins and grabbed one. 

“Here, I know they’re your favorite,” He murmured as he set it down in front of Parker.

“Um, thanks,” Parker said.

Eddie hid his frown as walked away from the table, clutching the basket to his chest. He didn’t want to wait around to see what Parker did with the mini baked good.

_ Stanley will probably make him throw it away,  _ Eddie’s frown turned into a full scowl. 

Tonight was a major bust and  _ god, _ he couldn’t just walk out of the library  _ now.  _ How utterly embarrassing would that be. It’d look like he had nothing else going on for him, and no one else to meet (which he didn’t, but they didn’t need to know that...)

He aimlessly walked several yards away toward the massive clump of book shelves. He guessed he could easily make himself look busy. Make himself look scholarly like  _ oh, he’s checking out even more books for his studies! _

_ Yeah, genius plan,  _ Eddie thought sarcastically.

Eddie turned into a random aisle and stood there. And just- stared at the different colored spines of the books in front of him. He’ll hide out here for a while. Ten minutes, tops, and then he’ll go back to his dorm and cuddle up with Mr. Gordo for comfort. 

And maybe break out another romance that’ll make him cry again.

He mindlessly grabbed at a muffin and munched on it.  _ Damn, were these good.  _ He quickly finished it, leaving zero crumbs left. Eddie grabbed another but he abruptly dropped it back in the basket when he heard a male voice address him.

“Please tell me you’re not still looking for your textbooks.” 

_ He recognized that voice!! _

Eddie looked over and his lips twitched into a smile when he saw Richie standing there. He was holding a thick, and slightly familiar-looking, book in his hand and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. Eddie noticed his tie next. It was a dark blue one with a picture of a giant lobster waving it’s claw. 

And Richie was... _ tall.  _ He was maybe an inch or two taller than Parker, huh _. _

“Oh my god, it’s you!” Eddie blurted out.

Richie seemed surprised at his sudden perky mood, but he smiled back nonetheless. “It’s me.”

“I’m so sorry for last week. I just left you without saying goodbye and—”

Richie shook his head, stopping him in the middle of his sentence. “It’s fine, I had to be somewhere, anyways.”

“Oh, good.” Eddie nodded and then glanced toward the shelf of books next to him. “Also to answer you, I’m happy to report that I already checked out all of the books on my list, so  _ ha,  _ I’m definitely back on track again. What are you doing here?” He asked while curiously eyeing the book in his grip.

“I’m checking this baby out.” Richie easily held up the book to show him the cover. “I go through the same bullshit every couple of years. They keep on printing out new editions and I have to keep track of every one for consistency’s sake.”

_ Every couple of years?  _ Eddie looked more closely at the book again and he realized that it was the same exact textbook he needed for Professor Bowers’ class.  _ Criminal Law: A Series of Cases and Studies.  _

“Criminal Law? That’s one of my books.” Eddie scrunched up his nose and let out a giggle. “Okay, I know you’re older, but don’t tell me you’re a fourth-year who can’t ever seem to get through any of his first-year classes.” 

“You’re funny, you know that?” Richie commented with a gleam in his eyes. 

“I have my moments,” Eddie grinned.

Richie let out a snort. “I’m not a fourth-year, I’m not a student at all, actually.” He said and then continued. “Yeah, I graduated from here about five years ago. I’m now an associate of Bowers’ and part of my job is to sit in on a good chunk of his lectures. Hence, the book.” He explained.

“Really?” Eddie felt the beginnings of hope filter into his chest. “I haven’t seen you in class…” He was fishing for more info,  _ yet again,  _ but it was more important, more  _ essential, _ this time around. Especially if it meant what he thought it meant-

Richie nodded. “I always skip the first couple of weeks. Let everyone get acquainted with their desks before I picked mine. Plus, I learned a long time ago that Bowers always had the same speech and cases prepared at the very start of the semester, and I would rather give up my left nut than ever subject myself to hearing all that jumble again.” 

Eddie couldn’t even properly appreciate his joke because all he could think about was how the stars seemed to be aligning for him again.

“Oh my god, this is so perfect. I sit in the back row and it’s the best spot, but you probably already knew that, and the desk next to mine is empty like all the time, so you can totally sit there whenever you do come to class!” Eddie rushed out in excitement. 

_ “Ooh, _ and before I forget again, you should give me your number. Do you have a pen?” Eddie asked, running his eyes over every inch of his body as if he could magically see if there was a pen on him. 

“You know, I don’t usually make it a habit of befriending students,” Richie said while crossing his arms. 

_ Oh...  _ Eddie’s breath caught in his throat. 

_ Too much, too fast. _

_ Got it.  _ He hugged his basket tighter to his chest.

“Right, of course, I—”

“But I guess I could make the tiniest exception, this time around…” Richie finished saying with a smirk growing on his face.

Eddie’s mouth gaped open in realization. “Okay, now I dislike you. I don’t want your number anymore.” 

Richie laughed louder than he should have in a library. “May I?” He asked, pointing to his basket. 

“You so don’t deserve them,” Eddie said with a shake of his head, but still held it out for him to take. Richie grabbed all that he could fit in one hand and unceremoniously shoved them in his mouth one by one. 

“I fucking love blueberry muffins. Good choice,” Richie mumbled as he chewed. Eddie softly smiled while watching him.

At least someone else besides him was enjoying them. 

Richie then reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. “I don’t have a pen but I have this.” He passed it to him and Eddie eagerly took it. “I’ll be in class this Wednesday too.”

Eddie nodded. “You’ll totally help me cheat, right? Because that’s the only reason why I want you to sit next to me.” He teased.

“Do not test me on this,” Richie warned him. “Because I literally  _ will  _ help you cheat, and feel no remorse about it, all just to reassure myself that I’m still the smartest person in the room.”

Eddie laughed again.

And maybe this night wasn’t a total bust...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Richie would’ve been disappointed in me bc I didn’t get all of my books until late-October my first year 💀 I just wasn’t responsible like Eddie 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
> 
> Hmm, I wonder what fun plot point is up next...
> 
> Thank you to each and every one of my readers :) Your patience is a godsend ❤️


	7. The thing about smartyness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Progress?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO! First posting of the new year 🥳!
> 
> This chapter was actually supposed to be a lot longer, but I decided to save the rest for the next one so prepare for that 🤩🤩
> 
> Happy reading with this one 💗

Eddie didn’t call Richie that weekend. For some weird reason, every time he pulled out his card and stared down at the number, his stomach would twist at the thought of picking up his phone and dialing, which was so out of the ordinary considering Eddie typically had zero hesitation when calling  _ any  _ of his new acquaintances turned friends. 

Hell, he had no qualms about emailing Adrian only a few hours after he’d just met him, asking if he’d liked to get a late cup of coffee (which they did, and it was super fun).

Though, if he really wanted to point out the differences, he hadn’t been attracted to Adrian the way he was attracted to Richie—and wasn’t  _ that  _ a thought so far out of left field that had Eddie dropping Richie’s card on his desk with wide, guilt ridden eyes, and then hopping back on his bed and hugging his knees to his chest, working on banishing said thought from his mind. 

He decidedly wasn’t going to think about that…no matter how much Eddie was coming to realize Richie actually fit his type perfectly.

He settled on calling Bev instead and they made plans for Sunday; going out for an early lunch and stopping by the local pet store after. She apparently wanted a new fish to go with the other brightly colorful ones in her cute tank.

That was a lot of fun too. He ended up picking out a few fluffy toys for Mr. Gordo. A little reward for her since she stopped using his desk as her permanent grooming station.

———

On Wednesday, Eddie woke up earlier than he normally did for a reason he wasn’t really comfortable saying out loud (but okay, being excited over seeing a new friend again was a  _ totally  _ normal thing), and he ate a hearty breakfast of two of the three cereal bars he kept in his small cabinet full of snacks, and grabbed his stuff before leaving for his morning class. 

Criminal Law again,  _ no big deal.  _

Wait—actually a big deal. Parker was in that class.  _ Yeah _ , Eddie shook his head at himself as he continued walking in the direction of Hauser Hall.

Upon nearing his class, Eddie took a deep breath before walking in and he immediately saw Richie standing by Bowers’ desk and chatting with his professor. He had on another funky looking tie from what Eddie can tell and he had his arms casually folded against his chest, showing off his forearms in the early morning. Richie really must’ve had a penchant for rolling up his sleeves…not that Eddie was complaining in the slightest.

Eddie was thinking about waving to get his attention, but before he could, he felt a hand tap his shoulder.

“Eddie, hey.” Parker smiled down at him and Eddie’s heart sped up.

“Hey! What’s up?” He discreetly peeked around them to see if there was a certain snarky boy lurking by, and when he didn’t spot Stanley anywhere, Eddie fully smiled.  _ This was more like it. _

“Listen, I’m sorry about the other night. You know, with the whole…” Parker trailed off and Eddie scrunched up his face and shook his head, dismissing the entire matter. It was all in the past, really.

“It’s fine, you’re okay. Did you enjoy the muffin I left you?” 

“It was good yeah,” Parker said. “Wish I had more but I bet you had your fill of them by the end of the night. What was that, like twenty in your basket?” 

Eddie actually didn’t eat more than five muffins. Richie had stolen more the longer they’d talked and Eddie gladly gave them up. He didn’t buy them for only himself to enjoy after all. 

“Actually, no. But it’s so funny, you know that guy I was—”

“It really is good to see you Eddie, we should hang out soon.” Parker said with his charming smile and Eddie fought  _ really hard  _ not to jump around in joy then. 

_ Oh my god, it was finally happening!  _

“Totally! When are you—” Eddie began to say.

“That’s great, but we should probably sit down now though.” Parker nodded towards the rows of desks behind him and he then noticed that almost half of the desks were filled with tired looking students now.

“Right, duh,” Eddie laughed to himself. “But get back to me about hanging out, okay?” He reached out to touch his elbow, and felt the welcomed zap of electricity from the contact. Parker smiled at him again before he rushed off to his desk. Eddie followed his lead and soon enough, he was at his own desk and he placed his belongings on the surface of it before sitting down. He was in the middle of arranging both his book and journal the way he always liked to on the desk when out of the corner of his eye, he saw a fancy dark brown messenger bag being set down on the desk next to him.

“Morning,” Richie said as he sat down, he then brought his own book up with a sigh. 

“Morning.” Eddie smiled at him. “You totally look like a student.”

“That’s the idea really.” Richie grinned back and Eddie watched as he opened the flap of the bag and pulled out his own journal and pen. Richie then moved the bag out of the way and placed it on the floor. 

“So, what are you supposed to do? I can’t imagine having to sit through an entire class and relearning basic information I already know and doing it again every year.” 

“It’s not all bad,” Richie commented. “New students every year means new brains to pick at and listen to and everyone always has a different answer to the same question. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about,” Richie smirked and there was this look in his eyes that Eddie didn’t like. 

“Oh god, what?” Eddie asked. 

“It’s nothing, it’s just-” Richie let out a soft laugh and ran a hand through his hair, further messing it up. “People talk, lawyers talk especially; and some time ago Bowers sort of gave a rundown of how the new batch of freshmen are to a bunch of us at the office and he said something about how one of his students said,  _ with _ a straight face, that they’d rather have an innocent client—”

Eddie’s entire body froze in horror. What he said was funny enough that  _ Bowers  _ talked about it with his colleagues?! Eddie groaned and buried his face in his hands to hide his misery from the other man. 

“And a part of me somehow knew that it was you, so now I’m just  _ really _ happy to have the confirmation.” Richie’s satisfied smirk only got bigger. 

“Okay, you so weren’t there! That was a trick question and my answer was completely within bounds!” Eddie defended himself and Richie just laughed again.

“Just a word of advice, when he asks those types of questions he wants you to stick to the script and answer him based on the options he gives you. He’s just looking to see if you know the basic terminology,” He explained after he calmed down.

Eddie begrudgingly nodded, but he couldn’t let it go yet. “You know I was right though.”

“Big picture, yes. I would also like to have an innocent client myself.” Richie agreed with him and Eddie softened. He could hear more people filtering into class and making noise as they shuffled into their seats, but Eddie didn’t care to take his attention off of Richie. Not yet anyway.

“So what’s the notebook for? Do you repeat notes?” He asked. 

Richie glanced at the simple spiral notebook he had on his desk. “Don’t tell anyone this, but I have a hand in at picking the interns. It’s the reason why I come here, besides going over case files with Bowers and handing him additional notes. I listen to what everyone says in class and I make notes about the standouts. Basically see if anyone could be a good fit for our team, bring in a new perspective, and at the end of the year, Bowers and I have a discussion about it and choose the four lucky candidates.”

“Wow,” Eddie commented. 

“Yeah,” Richie nodded. “So you better start sucking up to me if you want in.” He teased as he opened up his notebook to the first clean page.

Eddie playfully scoffed. “Oh please, I don’t need to suck up at all. I’ll get picked based solely on my smartyness.”

“Smartyness?” Richie made a show of shaking his head and clicking his pen.

“Wait, no!” Eddie giggled as he tried to wrestle the pen out of Richie’s hand, preventing him from writing his blunder down. 

———

Time, like always, moved fast when life grew busy and soon enough, it was the first week of October. Eddie’s workload from each class was starting to pile up but he saw that coming, of course.

Completing the work was easy enough, all of his summer studying was proving to be useful and now with his additional pages full of notes from his lectures, Eddie felt confident that he wouldn’t be sinking to the ground anytime soon. 

There was just this one thing that put a damper on things.

“So how’s the sitch with Parker?” Faith asked through the phone and Eddie frowned to himself. He was sitting on the floor, a pillow behind him as he leaned back against his bed. It was also a Friday night.

He didn’t have any plans tonight,  _ again.  _

“No progress to report,” Eddie said with a sigh. Despite their quick conversation that Wednesday morning, a promise that there would be something  _ more _ again, he and Parker have yet to hang out together outside of class. He was growing restless with every day that passed with absolutely zero interaction with Parker, but Eddie was dealing.

_ Sort of  _ dealing.

Adrian made a disappointed noise on the other end.

“God, I hate him.” Eddie laughed despite himself. He’d been hesitant at first to break the news of Parker’s engagement to them, half afraid that they’d actually fly in from California and break one of Parker’s legs like they always threatened they would if he so much as made Eddie cry. 

They had reluctantly let the matter go after the initial breakup, but learning about Stanley was the last straw. Thank god they didn’t have the money to purchase a couple of plane tickets at the moment. 

“It’s whatever guys, but there’s still time for things to change.” Eddie said as he picked at a loose thread in one of his socks. 

“Hey, you want to hear something that will make you smile?” Faith asked him and Eddie perked up.

“What?”

“Faith, no-” Adrian said.

“Oh come on, you have to tell him sometime.”

“But  _ this _ isn’t the right time!”

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows. “Okay, now I have to know. What’s up?”

“Our little Adrian is getting married!” Faith screamed while Adrian groaned.

“Are you for real?! Oh my god—congratulations but why didn’t you tell me, you absolute ass!” Eddie gasped, sitting up on his knees now. “When and how did this happen? Wait though, I totally have to send you and Don something. Hold on,” Eddie made a grab for the pen and notepad on his nightstand. “Okay, tell me what you guys want or need, I’m gonna write it down and go shopping soon.” 

“See?” Faith said, seemingly to Adrian.

“I know, I know,” Adrian said back and sighed. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, Eddie.” 

Eddie placed the pen and pad on the floor next time him. “Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know, it seemed cruel to tell you with everything that’s going on with Parker. I just didn’t want to shove my engagement down your throat and make you even more sad.”

“Okay, stop. Hearing great news isn’t ever cruel, I promise. And look, whatever’s going on with me right now, doesn’t make me stop caring about the two of you and everything good that’s happening in your lives. I’m happy for you Adrian, like  _ so  _ happy you have no idea.” Eddie stopped to smile even though they couldn’t see it. “I love you both, always.”

“We love you too.” Faith responded. “You totally just made Adrian tear up just now, by the way.” 

“No!” Adrian denied and Eddie laughed into the receiver. “I’ll get back to you about possible presents later, I need to talk with my fiancé about that of course—god I love saying that—but what I can tell you right now is to keep June 9th open on your calendar.”

“Done.” Eddie said. 

“Oh, I gotta go guys. I’m supposed to be meeting Don in twenty minutes. I miss and love you Eddie. Come back to us soon, please!” 

Eddie giggled. “Talk to you later, Adrian.”

“Bye, babe.” Eddie then heard the sound of the door shutting on the other end. 

“Just us, B.”

“Just us,” He echoed. “Unless...are you secretly engaged too?” 

Faith snorted on the other end. “I’m good with the bar scene for now, but um, how are you really?” She asked and the calm air that surrounded him suddenly changed. 

“I’m good, yeah. I told you about my grades,” Eddie said. 

“That’s not what I was asking about.” 

“I'm fine with this whole sitch with Parker.” Eddie said quickly while nodding. He fell back into the pillow behind him. “It’s not ideal, but believe me, I’m fine.” 

It wasn’t  _ ideal _ in the slightest, Parker still spent his days with his arms wrapped around another man, both of them carefree as they hung out with their chosen posse outside of class, while Eddie was cooped up in his dorm room most of the time. 

Maybe that was why he was doing so well with his studies. He didn’t have the option to get together with any of his peers on campus and simply hang out with them instead of doing his work. 

Because they’d already developed an opinion of him long before he did of them. He guessed that was one of the drawbacks of attending a prestigious school like Harvard with its  _ holier than thou _ mindset among its students; there wasn’t any room for mistakes. 

But things would change for him.

He was still desperately holding onto hope. He had to. 

“I hope you know that it would be okay if you never get back together with him.” She said as gently as she could’ve but Eddie’s heart still felt heavy in his chest when hearing it. Slightly weighing him and whatever cheerful mood that was left in him, down.

And yeah. 

A small part of him, a part he didn’t really want to acknowledge, already knew.

The nerves in him grew, but he brushed them off. He didn’t want to think about it. 

Instead of responding to that, Eddie steered their conversation towards better topics, not wanting their phone call to end on a glum note. They both said goodbye to each other a good ten minutes later, with their usual ‘I love you’s stamped onto the end of it, and Eddie sat his phone back in its cradle with a sigh. He then glanced at the small clock on his nightstand. 

It was barely nine o’clock. 

He supposed he could spend the rest of the night going through some of his movie collection. 

Plugging in the string of fairy lights he had hanging all across the wall where his bed stood against, Eddie then moved to close his door. Just as he got his hand on the handle, he heard voices in the hallway. 

“Seriously, don’t forget! Eight o’clock at 45 Dunston street.” A few excited mutterings of affirmation followed. “It’s going to be a really nice party.”

Eddie’s eyes widened. A party? 

Holy shit,  _ finally!  _

A couple of people passed by his doorway then and Eddie was swift to rush out. “No way! Is somebody at this school having a party?” He asked.

The pair stopped in their tracks and turned around and  _ of course  _ it just had to be Stanley and Betty. Eddie’s shoulders deflated and he took a step back, leaning against his door jamb.

Betty rolled her eyes. “Yes, you heard right.”

Stanley looked at him for a moment and then sighed. “But it’s kind of a costume party. You probably wouldn’t want to come.” 

_ Was the ice finally melting?  _ Stanley was almost being civil to him, which was a first. 

He could be civil too...

“That sounds fun. Who doesn’t love a costume party?” 

Stanley nodded. “Well then, I guess we’ll see you there. I don’t know if you heard, but it’s tomorrow at 45 Dunston street.” 

A real invitation, butterflies began to flutter in his stomach. Maybe things are starting to change in his favor. 

“I’ll be there.” Eddie tentatively smiled. He closed his door just as Betty had started to drag Stanley back down the hallway and Eddie couldn’t help but squeal in joy at the turn of events his night took. 

He had to pick the perfect costume. 

Eddie jogged towards his closet and fully opened the bi-fold doors. Ignoring Mr. Gordo’s sleeping body at the back corner, his eyes eagerly scanned the contents of his closet until he came to a stop at a little red number that always gave him  _ such fond memories.  _

He was going to blow Parker away tomorrow night. Eddie grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No offense to anyone who attended Harvard and did a double take at the holier than thou part 😳
> 
> We are moving along and I’m so excited to get to chapter 8 because it’s a good one, iykyk 👀👀 
> 
> I hope y’all enjoyed this one, let me know what you think or you can just yell at me to hurry and write the next one 😌 Have a nice day/night xx


	8. Bootyful realizations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie attends a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Exciting stuff happens in this one guys 🙈
> 
> Just wanted to say a brief thank you to everyone who tunes in to read every chapter I post (and thank you to those who clicked on this for the first time, taking a chance on this fic!) 💜💜 I hope you all enjoy this one 🥳!!

It was agonizing the way the entire Saturday had dragged on, probably due to the fact that his afternoon was spent being holed up in his room again because Eddie thought that he might as well take advantage of the free time he had today and read a couple of chapters ahead in one of his textbooks, but it was finally eight o’clock and Eddie could barely keep it together anymore because of how ready he was for the party tonight. 

How excited he was for Parker to see him in his costume.

Eddie looked over his reflection in the mirror one last time, and okay  _ wow, _ he still looked good in this outfit. 

Like— _ really good.  _

Showing off his skin and then some, Eddie was dressed in his favorite red (honest to god) booty shorts and midriff football jersey with a pair of knee-high white socks completing the ensemble. The sexy football player look, sans bulky helmet and shoulder pads of course, Eddie wore last Halloween as a surprise for Parker. It was an outfit his boyfriend went absolutely crazy for and while Eddie didn’t usually care to repeat costumes for parties and such, he decided that tonight’s party was an exception. If he wanted to make any progress with Parker then he had to pull out his lucky charm.

His red booty shorts. 

Adjusting the hem of the shorts so that they fit  _ just so  _ over the curve of his ass, Eddie turned away from the mirror and grabbed his sneakers to put on. He exited his dorm then and practically skipped down the hall in his haste to make it to the party at a time that was deemed fashionably late. He didn’t want to get there too early, finding the thought of hanging around his peers until Parker got there unappealing, and he didn’t want to arrive there too late for obvious reasons. 

8:30 seemed like a reasonable time to him. He was positive Parker would be there by then.

Eddie couldn’t hold back his giddy smirk, he could just picture the look on Parker’s face when he saw him. 

———

Nearing the front porch steps of the seemingly gigantic house, Eddie took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the simplistic exterior before walking in.

And taking one look around him, Eddie instantly regretted it. 

This wasn’t a costume party  _ at all.  _

He heard a loud wolf-whistle and Eddie knew right away that it was being directed at him. 

_ Maybe he should’ve thought twice about going with the slutty look tonight… _

Trying to save face, Eddie sheepishly smiled and did a small curtsy, before he fully realized how the move just made him look even more monumentally stupid in their eyes.  _ God,  _ he internally cringed at himself. 

He was never doing another curtsy again. 

Eddie’s stomach churned as he walked further into the house, while determinedly ignoring the crowd and their amused whispers around him. He entered the lounge and immediately, his eyes recognized a certain someone, or  _ two someones,  _ sitting on the pale yellow loveseat that sat a few feet in front of him, with drinks in their hands.

“Gee, thanks for inviting me, Stanley,” Eddie said sarcastically. “I’m clearly having a lot of fun here.” He gestured plainly to his outfit. 

Betty spilled some of her drink as she bent over, laughing, while Stanley stayed composed, looking supremely satisfied as he gave him a critical once-over. 

“To be fair, I didn’t think you were that stupid,” Stanley said and Eddie glowered as he felt entire body flush in both anger and shame; thinking about how wrong he’d been yesterday when he thought the other boy was trying to be nice to him by extending the invitation. 

_ Never again will he make that mistake,  _ Eddie vowed in his head. 

Stanley then shrugged. “Maybe if you hadn’t eavesdropped on us, you wouldn’t have found yourself in this situation.” He then looked all too pleased to be taking a sip of his drink.

_ The vindictive bitch.  _

“The fact that you had to ask us-” Betty began to say and hearing her stop just so she could snort out a laugh, aggravated Eddie all the more. “Oh honey, there’s a reason why no one explicitly came to your door and invited you.” Betty smirked. 

Feeling his blood boil, Eddie held his balled up fists behind his back. He wanted to make Stanley hurt.

But he can also be civil when doing it. 

“Do you want to know why I picked this particular outfit?” Eddie asked as he bent down to Stanley’s eye-level, arching his back perfectly and ignoring Betty all together. “It’s because this outfit got me fucked nice and hard by your fiancé last year.” Eddie then sighed as he took in Stanley’s demure appearance next. “I’m sure you wouldn’t know the feeling though.” Eddie pouted his lips at him and then turned to walk away from the pair without another word, not wanting to be in their prissy bubble for another second. He hoped his words had struck Stanley hard though, knocking him down a peg or two. 

And Eddie didn’t even understand why Stanley hated him so much in the first place.  _ He  _ was the one that had the right to be bitchy, not him! He had every right to since Stanley was the one that stole his fucking boyfriend and his future!

Eddie had done everything right, so why did he feel like he was in the wrong here?

“Nice belly button ring,” A random guy to his right said, with a drunken sneer.

“Wanna lick it?” Eddie snarked back before moving past him, and rolling his eyes. 

_ Ugh.  _ He definitely needed a drink in his system if he wanted to last another minute here.

Seeing a refrigerator through a wide doorway at the other end of the dining room, Eddie sighed in relief knowing he’d found the kitchen. He wandered in and—wouldn’t you know, Parker was standing there, idly leaning back against the granite island with a beer in his grasp. 

He knew he had picked the perfect time!

Drink completely forgotten, Eddie strode up to him, smiling in anticipation.

“Hey, you.” Eddie poked his arm to get his attention. 

Parker swiveled his head to face him and his mouth gaped open when he saw his outfit. “Wo _ -ow.”  _ He reached behind him to put his beer on the counter. “Don’t you look like a walking felony.” 

“Don’t I?” Eddie cheekily replied as he slowly twirled, making sure Parker saw  _ every  _ angle of him in the outfit and Eddie was secretly delighted when he noticed his dark eyes straying on his backside. 

_ An important lesson in life: never doubt the power of booty shorts. _

“Having fun?” Eddie asked, getting closer to him. 

“I am now,” Parker said with a smirk. “What’s with the costume?” He hovered his hands around his sides, and Eddie felt a shiver go up his spine despite Parker  _ not quite  _ touching him. 

But he wanted him to. So bad. He didn’t care that Stanley could walk in at any moment. Hell, Eddie  _ wanted  _ him to.

It would serve him right for his nasty attitude towards him, that was for sure. 

“Oh, I just decided to dress up.”

Parker chuckled. “How fun.” 

Eddie beamed up at him, but then he figured he should get right down to the nitty-gritty of their situation. “You know, I feel like we’ve barely spent any time together since we’ve been here.”

“I know, it’s just I’m so busy with these case studies and hypos.” Parker shook his head.

“Tell me about it,” Eddie readily agreed with him. “They’re giving us so much and it’s barely the second month. It’s totally going to be so much harder doing all this, plus more,  _ and _ Bowers’ internship next year. I’m seriously going to need to develop some advanced time management skills soon.” 

“Oh, Eddie,” Parker said in a cavalier tone that suddenly gave him pause. “You’re never gonna get the grades to qualify for one of those spots. You’re just not smart enough, baby.” Parker smiled gently as if he bestowed his greatest wisdom upon him, and laid a hand on Eddie’s cheek.

But Eddie was quick to take a step away from his offending hand. His touch didn’t feel so warm and comforting at the moment.  _ Not at all.  _ He stared up at Parker with a hurt expression on his face. 

“What do you mean I’m not smart enough?” Eddie asked slowly. “Didn’t we get accepted into the same school?”

“Well yeah, but—” Parker started but Eddie decided to cut him off. 

“But what? I mean, we took the same LSATs, Parker. We’re even in one of the same classes, doing the same exact work.” The more Eddie listed, the more fired up he got. The facts were right there in front of them. He couldn’t believe Parker had the audacity to just stand there and insult his intelligence. 

“I know all of that but come on, Eddie. Be serious here.” Parker frowned. 

_ Be serious?  _

_... _

_ Be fucking serious?!  _

“I  _ am _ serious. I’m the most serious I’ve ever been in my entire life.” He exhaled exasperatedly. “You have no idea the amount of work I did, the amount of studying I’ve done, to be here. To be speaking to you right now. What isn’t clicking?” Eddie’s voice was loud as he finished. 

Parker nervously threw looks around them, at the several party-goers who were also hanging around in the kitchen and most likely invested in their conversation at this point. He then stared back down at him. “Eddie, lower your—”

Eddie scoffed then. “No, why should I? We’re just having a normal conversation, right? You’re telling me that I’m not smart enough—that I’m not good enough for something,  _ again.” _

“I’m just saying the truth, okay?” Parker frowned harder and  _ of course,  _ his sentence and what he was trying to insinuate, would fly straight over his ex’s head. Eddie wanted to throw something. “Look, Eddie Bear,” He said softly, and then tried to snake his arms around his waist. 

Feeling his insides shrivel up in disgust the instant his hands touched his bare skin, Eddie slapped them away and pulled further back from him. “Don’t touch me, Parker, I swear- I-” Eddie huffed out a breath. “How many times have I fucking told you not to call me that?!”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Parker had lost the sad look on his face and in its absence, it was now replaced with anger. 

“What’s wrong with  _ me?  _ Absolutely nothing is wrong with me.” Eddie glared up at him. 

“Yeah,” Parker scoffed. “Says the guy dressed like a prostitute.”

Eddie barely flinched at his comment. 

“And does that make you mad? Does it make you angry, baby?” Eddie asked mockingly. “Tell me this then, since you don’t think I’m smart enough to get far here, what did you score on your LSATs, huh? Because I think we should compare notes and see who got the higher one.”

Parker rolled his eyes. “I’m not doing that.” 

Eddie snorted derisively. “Because you know deep down that I won. That I did better than you. That I am doing better than you while dressed  _ like this _ .”

“No, because I know for a fact that you didn’t get in here fairly. What’d you do? Cheat? You were a fashion merchandising major, Eddie, you knew nothing about law and now all of a sudden, you’re here?! How in the hell did that happen?! For all I know, you probably slept with someone on the admissions board to worm your way in here.”

And no matter how angry he was at the moment, no matter how much he wanted to slap that self-righteous look off of Parker’s face, Eddie’s eyes still stubbornly pooled with tears. 

He didn’t listen to him.

He didn’t  _ ever  _ listen to him.

The heart crushing realization hit him like a truck. 

“You never listen to me, do you?” Eddie's voice cracked as he asked him. “I just told you how I got here and it just went one ear and out the other, huh?” When Parker just stared down at him in silence, his anger unrelenting, Eddie shook his head. “You know what? Forget it. I’m not wasting another second here talking to you.” 

Eddie stormed off without so much as another glance at Parker and stomped towards the foyer, not caring that he was drawing even more attention to himself by bumping into a shoulder or two along the way. 

His heart was catching up just as he was walking out the door. 

_ Never again,  _ he made a vow to himself for the second time tonight.  _ Never again will he make himself vulnerable in front of Parker. _

Never again would he ever trust him.

Eddie pushed down the not so sudden urge to cry as he made his way towards his parked car. He couldn’t cry, he wouldn’t allow himself to, especially not over him again. 

No fucking way. 

Eddie slammed his car door shut and anxiously braced his hands on the wheel. 

He needed a distraction.

———

Standing in line at his university’s bookstore while carrying a box containing a new MacBook laptop, was definitely not how Eddie envisioned his night going hours ago, but here he was. 

Heartbroken and angry. 

...And in line carrying a really heavy box while half of his ass was freely hanging out for everyone in the store to see. Though with that last one, he was past the point of caring. He had a nice ass, so they might as well enjoy the view anyways.

The only reason why he was here was because Eddie was finally giving in and buying a laptop for his studies and really, taking the time to pick out one from the other four options the store had on the shelf was the perfect distraction he had needed after the disastrous party. 

And what better way to show Parker how even more serious he was about law school, than to finally purchase his own fucking laptop.  _ Bet he’d get a special kick out of that since he’d always used to tease him for not owning one even though Eddie had told him so many times that his first one had broken!!  _ Eddie scowled to himself and held on tighter to the box.

He heard someone clear their throat behind him then and thinking that they wanted to chat, probably about how he was getting the wrong color laptop  _ (yeah right),  _ Eddie turned around.

And-  _ oh my god! _

Eddie felt all of his anger and stress from the night deflate at the sight of Richie— _ Richie in casual clothes for once, woah— _ standing in line behind him.

“Oh, thank god you’re here,” Eddie blurted out, a bit breathless from the whole carrying a heavy box thing.  _ No other reason. _

“Do I even want to know why you’re dressed like a sexy magician?” Richie asked as a small smile began to form on his face, and Eddie blinked up at him.

“Football player,” Eddie corrected him. 

“Right, but magicians look like that in my dreams,” Richie told him and Eddie snorted, playfully rolling his eyes.

“It’s um, honestly a long story that you probably don’t want to hear,” He said, and it really was, to Richie at least. Faith and Adrian obviously knew the entire story, and Bev got the rundown plus some extra bit of juicy details he had wanted to share, but Eddie hadn’t dared to tell Richie about his history with Parker and why he was here in the first place. 

It almost felt too personal to share it with him for some reason...

Or maybe Eddie was just a coward and afraid that the other man would judge him once he did. Look at him differently once he knew how utterly pathetic Eddie was. 

_ Oh fuck, he’s gonna want to know,  _ Eddie’s teeth worried his bottom lip then. 

Noticing his trepidation, Richie started to backtrack. “You don’t have to tell me, it’s okay.” 

“No no, it’s fine,” Eddie was quick to deny, damning himself in the process.  _ Shit.  _ “I mean, I’m fine with telling you. We’re friends.” Eddie nodded with conviction, meeting his eyes.

Richie seemed to soften under his gaze. “Yeah, we are.”

“You’ve so gotta stop meeting me when I’m going through a crisis in my head though.” Eddie slightly teased and Richie barked out a laugh in response. And as far as Richie knew, this was only the second time he’d caught him in a crisis, because Eddie sure as hell didn’t tell him about his failure at trying to join a study group. Mentioning that would’ve opened the huge can of Parker worms. 

“Another crisis, you say? Now I think I’m obligated to treat you to a cup of coffee after this.” He gestured to the checkout counter up front and Eddie’s eyes widened. 

“Oh, that’s so not required,” Eddie began to protest, even though he felt a positive stirring in his gut at hearing his invitation. They hadn’t hung out in a causal setting yet, this was actually the first time they were talking to each other outside of class since their lengthy conversation at the library, and Eddie couldn’t bring himself to ask for anything more earlier. Even if it was just a quick lunch together at the cafeteria right after a lecture or a simple walk through the hallways of Hauser Hall until they’d make it out of the building and split off into opposite directions.

So Eddie let Richie go with a smile and a soft ‘bye’ at his desk every time, and as he watched Richie walk away, he’d make a promise to himself that he’d call him later. Maybe that same afternoon or night, or sometime during the week. Calling just to chat. 

Later came though, and Eddie never picked up the card and dialed. 

But Richie was the one inviting him out now and that only made Eddie wonder if it really was that easy all along to just ask for more time. 

_ More quality friendship time,  _ Eddie quickly clarified in his head.

The distinction was important. 

“I’m the older one here. So what I say goes, right?” 

“I cannot believe you’re pulling that card,” Eddie said in disbelief and when Richie just shrugged, his face full of confidence as if he already knew what the outcome of this would be, Eddie decided to give in. “But okay fine, you win. I’m paying for half the bill though!” He declared in a rush. 

Richie glanced down at the box in his hands. ‘Yeah that’s not happening.”

Looking down at the thing himself, Eddie let out a slight giggle. “Oh right, I forgot.”

“You forgot about the new and expensive laptop in your hands?” Richie teased. 

“Shut up.” Eddie kicked his leg in his direction. “What are you doing here anyways? I can’t see what you’re in line for.” 

Richie proudly held up the black Pro Mouse in his hand to show him and Eddie was back to staring at him in disbelief. 

“You came all the way over here for that?” He then let out a soft laugh. “There’s got to be other stores closer to your place.”

“But do the other stores give me a discount just because I’m an alumnus?” 

_ A discount on a freaking mouse?!  _ He really couldn’t believe the man in front of him.

“Let me guess, you drove over here for a five percent discount.” Eddie raised a brow. 

“I’ll have you know it’s ten percent. Five is just insulting and not worth my time.” 

Eddie laughed as he hefted up the box in his hands again. “You’re so right, I don’t know what I was thinking suggesting such a thing.” 

Richie regarded him for a moment. “Here,” He held his hands out. “Let me hold that for you.” 

“What, no! I can hold this myself.” Eddie insisted, even if his arms did feel a little bit tired from the strain, but Richie ended up ignoring him anyways. He set his computer mouse on top of the box and lifted it with ease, holding it against his stomach. 

“What did I just say!” Eddie pouted at the older man and Richie just shrugged his shoulders again.

“I was raised to be a gentleman.” He winked.

“Lawyers can’t be gentlemen. It’s in the job description,” Eddie said and looking behind him, he noticed that the person in front of him had moved up the line. 

“Maybe I just defy the odds,” Richie said as Eddie grabbed onto his shirt sleeve, tugging him forward. 

“I’m sure you do.” Eddie hid his grin as he stood in line, next to Richie. Waiting to make it up to the checkout counter. 

He didn’t realize he hadn’t let go of his sleeve yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t worry! Reddie’s coffee date is coming next ❤️ I’m not cutting that :D
> 
> But yay for Eddie finally realizing his relationship with Parker is over! He’s gonna be in the process of moving on entirely soon and I think y’all know how things are going to develope for Richie and Eddie’s relationship 🥴🥴🥴 As we move along, I’ll be adding more scenes in that are not in the movie, but I’ll still be following the general timeline of things 👌
> 
> I hope y’all liked this! Lemme know what you think or just leave a kudos 🤩! 
> 
> I’ll be working on MtB next 🥰

**Author's Note:**

> Not another typo, Eddie really named his female cat Mr. Gordo. He’s that chaotic. 
> 
> The whole gang will show up as the story progresses! I’ll somewhat follow the timeline of the movie so that should give you a hint of when Richie will show up...
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this xxx


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